I’d have given Amanda Seyfried an Oscar nomination for playing Shakers church founder Ann Lee in this sorta-musical biopic, which is now streaming on Hulu.
Seyfried presents a compelling performance as Lee, a woman who believes she is having visions guiding her religious convictions and pushing her beyond the mainstream Church of England of 18th-century Manchester, England. The musical aspect of the movie — singing and dancing often presented as a heightened form of worship — fits in nicely with the slightly-out-of-the-world nature of Ann Lee. She grows up in Manchester, working in a cotton mill and later as a cook in an asylum, but is also constantly active in her pursuit of a religious home. When she finds Jane and James Wardley, leaders of a Shaking Quakers church in the town, she seems to enjoy the ecstatic movements of their style of prayer, as well as the relatively egalitarian approach to gender. When visions lead her to become a preacher in her own right as Mother Ann Lee, she and the Wadleys decide she should set sail for America with a party that includes her brother William (Lewis Pullman), her longtime friend Mary (Thomasin McKenzie, who is also the movie’s narrator) and her somewhat reluctant husband Abraham (Christopher Abbott). Abraham is not thrilled that one of Ann’s revelations is that celibacy, even in marriage, is the only way to get closer to God — a fact that the movie puts in context of Ann’s four pregnancies that resulted in children who died before they were one year old. In the U.S., Ann and her followers slowly build a church community — one full of some truly lovely furniture — but also deal with the persecution of being a relatively fringe religion with a woman in charge.
In addition to the good work by Seyfried, the movie is lovely to look at — lit and framed like a live tableau of 18th-century paintings. The look of the movie conveys the emotion and helps put you in this world where religion plays this very un-21st-century role not only in society but also in the internal lives of the characters. B+On Hulu and available for purchase.
It was late at night on a Wednesday and everyone was asleep except Jeff Wilkins, who, ironically, was roasting coffee.
Wilkins is the owner and roaster of Kawa (pronounced “Kah-Vah”) Roasters, a small-batch coffee roasting company in Manchester. He was roasting batches of three pounds of coffee each.
“I ordered this machine brand new,” he said, laying his hand on a large, stainless steel appliance with a window showing roasting coffee beans being tossed and circulated. “This does a maximum of three pounds at a roast at a time,” he said. “I can buy a machine in this same design that will do up to 18 pounds, and that’s what I’m hoping to grow into, but at the moment this is where I’m at. I do multiple roasts a night, and then I blend them all together because it’s all manual. I don’t have any automation on this, so it’s all by sight, smell, time and temperature. Sometimes I’ll get there and that’s the whole point that I mix it. If one roast is a little too dark, I blend it with one that’s lighter.”
Wilkins said coffee roasting started out as a hobby for him.
“About three and a half, almost four years ago,” he said, “I decided that it was time to quit drinking alcohol and needed something to stay busy at night. My wife and I love coffee. So I said, hey, let’s learn how to make it. So I bought a roaster. It’s a little tabletop, you know, $500 job. I set it up in my garage and started playing around with it. I started watching videos, I read articles, and I did whatever I needed to do to try and figure out how to do this process. I made a lot of bad roasts and I burnt a lot of things. I found some things that worked, and eventually I kind of settled in on a, I’ll call it a recipe, that worked for the tastes that we like to come out of the beans.”
This led to gifts of home-roasted coffee to family and friends, who eventually convinced Wilkins to start roasting coffee professionally. Although he sells his coffee at a number of farmers markets and other events, most of his focus is on custom-roasting coffee beans for individuals and small businesses.
“I can do customized roasts for those that want to do their own unique blends,” he said. “I can do [bespoke] roasting where if you’re a cafe or a baker that’s doing, you know, 20, 30, 40 pounds a week and you want to private-label it, I’ll roast them and put them in your bags. Or I can do wholesale. So I can pretty much do whatever somebody wants.”
Wilkins said a lot of the variety in the flavor of coffee comes from how dark it has been roasted, but also from where it has been grown.
“There are so many different varieties of coffee,” he said, “ just like there’s so many different varieties of wine. But you can grow a chardonnay grape in California, and it’s going to taste completely different than a chardonnay grape coming from Europe. It’s because of the terroir, the conditions specific to where it was grown — it’s the nutrients, it’s the water, it’s the temperature, all plays a part in it. The same thing is true about coffee.”
This means coffee grown in different parts of the world, Wilkins said, often needs to be roasted differently.
“On my website I sell coffee beans from Costa Rica, Brazil, El Salvador, Vietnam, Thailand, and Sumatra. The Vietnamese coffee is unbelievable. I [roast] that one to a medium dark roast. It brings out a nice, almost like a Baker’s chocolate flavor to it at the end of the sip. I have tried the Sumatra as a light roast and it’s like drinking tree bark, it’s just terrible, but you take it to the darker levels and you get some really nice flavors coming out of it. Same thing with the Costa Rica. That bean lends itself to a lighter roast to pick up those nuances.”
Kawa Roasters Fresh roasted and custom whole-bean Kawa coffee is available at kawaroasters.com, as is grinding and brewing equipment. Visit kawaroasters.com/our-retailers.
Featured photo: Coffee beans at Kawa. Photo by John Fladd.
Landscapes and architecture among works at gallery opening
Glimpse Gallery in Concord will have creations for sale from six artists at its upcoming month-long show, done in a range of media from acrylic and oil to volcanic pumice and flakes of titanium. And it will serve as a museum of sorts for a local architect to show the process and product of his profession.
Many artistic moods are shown on the collected canvases. Andrew Freshour’s ink and watercolor works are fanciful and fun, from the playful gourmand at the center of “A Menagerie of Petite Treats” to the movement and flow of “Celestial Pilgrimage,” an array of storybook characters ascending to the clouds.
A few more are classical, one resembles a playing card, and the rotund caricatures in “Tea’d Off” and “La Reine du Gateau” are also delightful.
“You truly never know what you’re going to get when you come into Glimpse,” gallery owner Meme Exum said with a laugh. “These are clearly conversation starters, or stoppers … all perfectly framed and matted.”
Schenectady, New York-based artist Jeni Follman’s evocative landscape oil paintings are a focal point of the show, Exum continued.
“She’s one of those artists that just has such a style that is intrinsic to her,” Exum said. “She’ll have a large piece in the foyer, and in the second room in the gallery, hung salon style.”
The gallery’s curator Christina Landry-Boullion will display some of her monochromatic charcoal works, a departure from mixed media works shown at past Glimpse shows like “Lavender Peony,” “Blueberries” and “Mac Apple.” “Not what you see on her portfolio,” Exum said, “but these three large charcoal white, varying grays and black pieces.”
Painter Abigail Wade grew up in rural New Hampshire, but her impressionistic landscapes move beyond country life. “Morning on the Mississippi” captures a spare copse of trees surrounded by a curve in the river, “Lying Awake” has a brilliant urban skyline, while a “No Entry” sign at the center of “Green Fields” offers an ironic counterpoint to an idyllic snapshot.
Lizzy Berube fully embraces nature and the outdoors in her oil and acrylic paintings. “A Piece of Sky” has the perspective of someone lying in tall grass, staring up at clouds over water that look like a majestic mountain. “Time to” Go evokes a hiker’s staircase, while “Deja Blues” is a lovely meditation on rocky coastal waters.
The shows happen six times a year and run for a month, while alternating months are spent preparing for the next. One of the most compelling artists in the April show is Adam Sloat, who grew up in a house filled with art and music transfixed by Monet, Jackson Pollock and comic books.
Sloat hints at Joseph Cornell’s assemblage and Van Gogh’s texture, as he employs a variety of exotic media in his pieces, with frame materials also vital along with the painted surface. “Space Babies: Iteration One” is a vibrant example that aligns with Sloat’s artist statement goal for his art to be “a gateway for the viewer to create their own stories for what they see.”
Finally there’s architect William Exum, Meme’s husband, who will show the process behind a house built on the shore of Lake Toxaway, North Carolina, last year. “It’s engaging with design,” Meme said, adding the display has four sketches of the design surrounding a high resolution of the finished product.
“It shows people how architects plan out every detail when they get a well-designed house, not when they get a cookie-cutter big mansion,” she said. “From an artistic standpoint, I love the collaboration of details throughout the design.”
April 9 – May 9 show opening When: Saturday, April 11, 5-7 p.m. Where: Glimpse Gallery, 4 Park St. (Patriot Building), Concord RSVP: contact@theglimpsegallery.com
Featured photo: First Light Niskayuna, NY by Jeni Folmann.
An update on the local comedy scene plus interviews with Craig Ferguson and Jenny Zigrino
From Adam Sandler to Sarah Silverman and Seth Meyers, many talented comedians have come from the Granite State. New Hampshire continues to be an incubator for standup comedy and also has plenty of showcases, including a sparkling new one opening soon in Manchester.
In the late 2000s and early 2010s the Queen City was a hotbed for a second wave of comedy that included future SNL stars and buzzy joke-tellers who now reign both on social media and in the nation’s comedy clubs. They were drawn to a weekly comedy night at Shaskeen Pub.
Run by three comics, it began as an open mic and stayed that way until 2015.
At that point one partner moved the open mic to Murphy’s Taproom. The Shaskeen switched to a showcase, run by Nick Lavallee and Dave Carter. It welcomed a new breed of comics like Dan Soder, W. Kamau Bell and Sam Jay. It also gave big names and rising stars with weekend shows in Boston an extra New England stop.
Drew Dunn’s first comedy sets came at the Shaskeen’s open mic. He’s now a touring comic, headlining clubs from Foxwoods to San Diego. On March 30 Dunn began a weeklong run in Las Vegas at Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club, atop the bill for three nights and opening for Garrett on the other four.
A few jokes about the sitting president helped win over a tough crowd. “I don’t think Trump is Christ-like, but it’d be funny if Christ was Trump-like,” he said, retelling the loaves and fishes tale in perfect voice. “I could feed a lot of people with this fish, it’s a big fish, it’s a beautiful fish, it’s a Bran-zino, it’s a very delicate fish.”
As his early success grew, Dunn was a regular performer at the Shaskeen. During a sit-down interview in the outside lounge of Garrett’s club following his opening night show, the Nashua native remembered those days with fondness, along with praise for Lavallee.
“It was probably the best show on a Wednesday anywhere in America for a good stint there,” he said. “Nick was a great tastemaker … ahead of the game on picking some of these guys that are huge names now. He was booking Tim Dillon when he had a few thousand followers, but he just saw how great he was.”
Five years ago Dunn moved to New York City, like many comics with their sights set on the next level in the business. When he arrived, the contacts he’d made performing at the Shaskeen were crucial for him getting booked at a very competitive NYC club.
“This is such a business of connections and having people believe in you,” he said. “My recommendations for the Comedy Cellar were Mark Norman, Soder, and Joe List. Two of those guys I had worked with at the Shaskeen Pub, or at least crossed paths with them there.”
While he was booking shows, including more than a few in the basement of his North Side house, Lavallee was also doing standup and making a name for himself. For much of the decade he traveled a path much like Dunn’s, touring the country and doing area shows at clubs like Rob Steen’s Headliners.
Combining doing and booking comedy with a full-time community media job wore on him, and it also clashed with his newfound sobriety, so Lavallee retired from standup. He and Carter closed out their Shaskeen run in 2021 with a series of shows and a sense of hope.
“When Dave and I passed the torch,” he said, “we wanted to see the comedy scene in Manchester grow. We wanted to leave behind a legacy that was like, ‘Hey, you can do this.’ If you put in the work, you can get great talent from New York, L.A., Chicago, anywhere to come to Manchester.”
It then continued in new hands. Initially Ruby Room Comedy took over. It’s now run by Sam Mangano, who also books pop-up Don’t Tell shows in the state, and is doing well. “Wednesday nights have good crowds and comics,” he said recently. “The past few months have been busy, with repeat faces in the crowd.”
Nick Lavallee. Photo by Michael Witthaus.
Lavallee moved on to music, making pop culture action figures, and boosting his hometown as the Chicken Tender Capital of the World. He still missed the business, though, and with the recent opening of a complex on Canal Street anchored by Harpoon Brewery, he decided to return to comedy, this time strictly as a booker.
In late February Lavallee began teasing a new venue, and shows presented under his Wicked Joyful brand. Located in the Queen City Center, the 130-seat Queen City Center Showroom will open on April 17 with a veteran comic from his Shaskeen days, Jenny Zigrino (tickets $29 at eventbrite.com).
Lavallee also plans to book shows in a 500-seat space known as Studio A, and mentioned that depending on demand there might be a late show on April 17. Zigrino’s comedy star rose in New England, including many Shaskeen shows, which makes her a great choice to debut comedy at Queen City Center.
“My roots in New Hampshire … run pretty deep,” Zigrino said by phone recently. “I worked in Bedford when I was younger, and my mother lived in Manchester briefly. So I am very familiar with the town, and I love it. I’m excited for what Nick is going to be doing with Wicked Joyful, trying to bring in more arts entertainment.”
In mid-March Lavallee walked around the Queen City Center, showing off the two performance spaces along with a Wicked Joyful retail store that will open soon. There, he’ll be selling bespoke action figures, attire and other items in a room with an original booth from Manchester’s Puritan, the birthplace of “tendies.”
He’s looking forward to booking shows, but stressed that he’s no longer interested in doing comedy himself.
“I fell out of love with it,” he said, adding that the realization happened during the pandemic. “When no one was doing it, I had time to look at the things that mattered to me most.”
Comedy, he could see, had become an unhealthy ego-stroking exercise. “Because of sobriety, the person I evolved into wasn’t getting on stage and saying disparaging things about myself that may or may not be true.” With that understanding, he continued, “I could focus all that energy into my creative outlet.”
Returning as a promoter also offers a chance to restore the community that grew during the Shaskeen days. “I don’t mean community of comics, though they’re a part of it … it’s the regulars who’d show up, would tell their friends about it, would go to work talking about it the next day.”
His old partner will be a presence but not operationally involved.
“I want Dave to bask in the community that he built and consistently served for seven years, that truly loved him and the work that we did…. I want him to enjoy it,” Lavallee said. “That’s the best kind of family reunion you could go to, and I think he deserves that.”
The new endeavor has Lavallee energized for exciting things.
“Despite the great work that other rooms are doing, even the one we left behind,” he said, “I think there’s room to build up community and bring culture into Manchester through laughter and positivity. That’s what I’m most excited about.”
It’s helpful to recall that this began with a gaggle of wannabe funny people looking to sharpen their comedy muscles. That energy, along with the successful comics it’s produced (and continues to produce), is still here. In fact, the comedy scene in the region is arguably bigger than it’s ever been.
Manchester’s current longest-lived open mic offers proof that’s it’s both exciting and promising.
On a recent Friday night, a dozen or so comics, some more seasoned than others, gathered in the back room of Strange Brew Tavern to work in front of a crowd of nearly 50 people. Most had a “tight five” — standup code for the abbreviated set all comics must master to move forward in the trade.
All came from the Strange Brew’s Laugh Attic open mic night. Launched five years ago in June, it’s become a hub for aspiring comics and even a few veterans who use it to work on new material. It’s also launched a few to greater success, like Owen Damon, atop the bill that Friday and doing a 10-minute set.
Damon, no relation to the famous actor, is 21, and began coming to Laugh Attic in his teens. His success arc echoes Drew Dunn’s rise from open mics. Damon is now in Chicago, getting work in Midwest clubs with bits like the one about his Fox News-watching grandma who thinks Pilates is a terrorist group.
The Friday crowd laughed at the young comic’s jokes about sharing his Kindle account with his mom, and her shocking taste in racy books, why all service workers should be tipped like strippers (“I’m throwing a dollar at my barista”), and how a person’s milk preference is a clue to their religion — “almond is astrology.”
Danny Pee and Mike Dupont co-hosted, each doing their own five-minute sets. Danny Pee began coming to the Strange Brew when it started, looking to scratch his comedy itch. He did a solid set, landing with funny observations, such as his belief that fast food and smoking are basically the same vice.
Both cigarettes and cheeseburgers make you smell bad and feel ashamed enough to hide the noxious habit from your spouse, he noted. “I keep an extra shirt in the car,” he said. “I change into it after going to McDonald’s, so my wife doesn’t pick up the stink.”
That the open mic began as live entertainment was returning helped him make the leap into standup. “I’d been holed up, watching YouTube videos, thinking, ‘Where can I find that thing under my nose that I’m very interested in right now?’ This was one of those things,” he said. “I went, and never stopped showing up.”
Laugh Attic was launched by Ben Davis, who handed it over to him in 2024. Davis “really brought it up out of nowhere” and looked to him as someone a bit older and thus a dependable choice to keep it going; plus, he wanted it. “I think that he saw in me this desire to be there; I really hadn’t missed one open mic.”
The event has attracted interest from Rob Steen, who’s been doing comedy shows in New Hampshire longer than anyone. He’s showcased a deep lineup of comedy talent, including booking both Dunn and Lavallee early on, by keeping an eye on events like Laugh Attic, along with the recent explosion of open mics.
“Rob’s been through several times,” Danny Pee said. One open mic comic got booked at Chunky’s, a Steen venue, after he mentioned in his set that he worked there. “A light bulb went off for Rob … I don’t know how the set went or anything, but that was something that transpired from one of his most recent visits.”
Even with Steen’s network, large events and small open mic nights seemingly popping up everywhere, there’s room for more in the state’s comedy scene. Lavallee is excited to add another element to the mix with Queen City Center Comedy, with more bookings due to be announced.
“If there’s anything I missed from comedy, it’s producing a killer show,” he said. It’s something he did in both music and comedy for a big chunk of his 15-20 years as an entertainer. “Knowing I had the opportunity to do it again here, I jumped on it because, again, that’s the thing I miss the most.”
He sees his role as restoring the energy he and Carter created, while shining a light on a brand of comedy that he believes is mostly missing in the area. “Rarely do you see cutting edge … someone on their way up, before they do the Wilbur,” he said. “The shows that I produce here are going to fill that void.”
A week of comedy open mics
Check developing comedians at local open mic nights. They’re also a magnet for working comics looking to try out new material in a low-risk environment. Recently, several new ones have sprung up in Manchester.
Monday Jokes On Cue at Wow Billiards (2 North Main St., Concord) 8 p.m. Hosted by Joe Nahme (Facebook: @growupjoe Instagram: @jokesoncue)
Tuesday Moka Mic at Moka Pot (8 Hanover St., Manchester). 8:30 p.m. Hosted by Alex Lachance (facebook.com/alex.lachance)
Wednesday BAD BRGR (1015 Elm St., Manchester). 7 p.m. Hosted by Mike Skowronek (Facebook & Instagram: @mikesmidminute)
This Must Be the Mic at Hop Knot (1000 Elm St., Manchester) 8 p.m.. Co-Host Tucker Sampson (Instagram: @thismustbethemic) This is a mixed mic, with poets, musicians and occasional drag performances before the mic start.
Thursday Laugh Attic at Strange Brew Tavern (88 Market St., Manchester). 9 p.m. Hosted by Danny Pee (inktr.ee/dannypeecomedy)
First and Third Thursday at Candia Road Brewing (840 Candia Road, Manchester) 6p.m. Hosted by Pete Trubble Morse (Facebook: @gravelhound00)
Full circle moment
Comedy at Queen City Center with Jenny Zigrino
Just over a year into her comedy career, Jenny Zigrino came to Manchester for the first of many times to do standup at Shaskeen Pub. She met Nick Lavallee there, and the two bonded over his connections to Zigrino’s home state of Minnesota.
The friendship endured, and Zigrino performed frequently at the Shaskeen over the years, including several times when it switched from open mic to comedy showcase in 2015. She remembers the era with fondness, and is excited to return to Manchester for the first show at Queen City Center on April 17.
“I’m honored to be doing it. I’m excited,” Zigrino said by phone recently. “I have so many starting out roots in New Hampshire. … My first filmed comedy sets were at the Shaskeen, and still on my YouTube.” After several years in L.A., she now lives in New York City, though she’s back in SoCal frequently for work.
One project that will send her back west is a play, co-written with Caleb Zeringue, about an obscure but crucial Revolutionary War figure. Zigrino’s a history fan who once led tours on the Freedom Trail in Boston, and she performs History Tonight shows dressed up as King George III, including one in Cambridge April 15.
The Drill Master is about Friedrich von Steuben, an openly gay Prussian captain who met Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane in Paris. Experienced officers were needed for a disorganized army, so they asked him to join as an unpaid, unranked volunteer. Bored with Europe, von Steuben agreed.
“He comes over, befriends Washington, and people absolutely love him,” Zigrino said. “He basically whips everybody into shape and teaches them how to be an army … we probably don’t win the war without him, and we still use a lot of the training that he brought to America in the army today.”
The play is filled with laughs and a lot of inconvenient historical facts, like Alexander Hamilton’s more than friendly relationship with John Lawrence. “In the National Archives, you can read the letters, it’s crazy,” she said. “Hamilton wrote, ‘You think that me getting a wife is going to make me love you any less?’”
The staged reading, May 3 at L.A.’s Elysian Theatre, will be a star-studded affair.
“We’ve got a … killer cast,” Zigrino said. “Bobcat Goldthwaite is going to be George Washington, we’ve got Gianmarco Soresi, Cameron Esposito, Lady Bushra, Dylan Adler… they’re going to make it so good.”
Zigrino is also writing a romance novel, and she’s convinced that more men should read them.
“They’re literal manuals on what women want. For once, read the instructions,” she says onstage. “It’s not that hard. We just want you to say that you burn for us and to call us a good girl and to be a grumpy cowboy billionaire that also is sometimes a gay hockey player and you’re a werewolf vampire that might kill us.”
She’s also readying a new comedy special. Like Jenny Z, released on Comedy Central’s YouTube channel in 2023, it’s fan-financed on GoFundMe and Zigrino’s quirky, pretty much PG-13 OnlyFans site. “I have pictures of me in lingerie dressed as King George,” she said. “I’m having fun with it.”
The show is about “starting over” after a challenging period in her life that included the death of her sister, a breakup, and health issues that were ultimately resolved with GLP-1. She lost 60 pounds as a result, but emphatically did not lose her commitment to body positivity. She’ll preview the show in Manchester.
“It’s called Afterbirth,” she said. “The idea is that you come into the world, and all this crap is behind you … but it’s not really. You’re covered in blood, and you’re gross, and that’s what happens when you start over. You’re just kind of like a little newborn baby covered in placenta.”
Wicked Joyful Presents: Jenny Zigrino When: Friday, April 17, 6:30 p.m. Where: Queen City Center, 215 Canal St., Manchester Tickets: $28.50 at eventbrite.com
Comedy talk with Craig Ferguson
Craig Ferguson.
Years before he took over the Late Late Show or made his name as an actor alongside Drew Carey, Craig Ferguson was a standup comic. Ferguson’s first forays as a funny man were an outgrowth of his hazy days as a musician. He was drafted into the job, primarily because he had the proper mix of brave and crazy to work a punk crowd.
“They’d get me to go up when they were changing the equipment for the acts, or trying to resuscitate their guitarist, or something,” he recalled. “I would do five to 10 minutes between the bands. Then I kind of moved into it, but the very beginning was just being a loudmouth in punk rock bands.”
Ferguson brings his current Pants on Fire tour to Concord’s Capitol Center on April 12. Shortly after leaving late night in 2014, he hosted the game show Celebrity Name Game and won a couple of Daytime Emmys. In 2021 he did the same with ABC’s The Hustler, and last January he began hosting a TV version of Scrabble.
He likes the game show format because its prep requirements are pretty easy. “You learn how the game works and then you just play,” he said. Beyond that, “It’s very improvisational, it’s very engaging, and then there’s the whole thing of you’re giving away somebody else’s money, which is just icing on the cake.”
Is Ferguson a bit nostalgic for his late night days? “No, I don’t miss it really,” he said. “I’ll tell you why. I mean, I did it for a long time, and I’m proud of that show. I’m glad I did it. I think we managed to do something a little off the beaten track, but by the time I was done I was ready to go.”
Ever the good sport, Ferguson agreed to answer seven seminal questions about his career in comedy.
When did you realize that you were funny?
I’m not entirely convinced that I am, to be honest. I guess when they keep asking you back. So maybe in the punk rock days when you go up between the bands and nobody attacks you, you must have something going on. I think that must have been it.
What made you decide to be funny in front of people,beyond the bits between bands?
I never did decide to do that. It was kind of like I would be asked in increments to do things like that. I never really made a decision. It wasn’t a career path for me. I didn’t think, well, here’s my ambition, I’d like to be a stand-up comedian. I didn’t really have that. It was through kind of a series of unfortunate events.
Who were your inspirations, comics and things that you looked at as good examples?
Well, Billy Connolly was like Jackie Robinson for me. He was the first guy I ever heard or saw that sounded like us and was from a similar background. Billy’s about 20 years older than me, but he was becoming famous in Britain in his early 30s. I was in my early teens, so it was just perfect for me because he was the naughty comedian that would say naughty words, and I loved Billy. I still do. I guess in America it was the great American stand-ups of Richard Pryor and Robin Williams and George Carlin and Redd Foxx, and Eddie Murphy as well. Eddie Murphy’s stand-up. Eddie Murphy’s the same age as me, and I would watch. He was young when he was doing stand-ups. This guy’s amazing, and he was the same age as me. He still is amazing, but when he broke through, it was hard to overstate how important he was at that time.
How did your first set go?
You know, I’ll be honest with you. Again, it was in the before time, so I’m not entirely sure I remember my first set. There were a few very bad ones. I remember doing a show at a punk rock club in London. It was a festival of Scottish punk bands, and there was a bunch of Cockneys there. I thought it would be funny if I wore a kilt, but I was very frightened of the audience. They noticed that my knees were knocking. They were literally shaking. I was so nervous. You could see my knees because I was wearing a kilt. They started a chant, this Cockney chant. They were all shouting, His knees are knocking! His knees are knocking! It was an exercise in humiliation. Yeah, I think humiliation.
Was there a moment when you realized you could succeed at it?
Not particularly like that. When I talk to other comedians, they understand this. When it went really bad, like that gig at the Scribner where the audience were chanting, His knees are knocking, and I died on stage. When I came off, it was a weird kind of like, Oh man, I want to do that again. Comedians understand that it’s hard because you’re like, Why would anyone want to do that again? But you kind of do. I don’t know what it is. I want another crack at it. It’s weird.
Was there a time when you felt like giving up?
No, I don’t really think so. I think that it’s all part of the, especially now, I just kind of roll into it. It feels like I belong there. I’m very comfortable doing what I do. I like doing it. It’s relaxing for me in another way to be on stage.
What’s your favorite part about doing stand-up, Craig?
I think the immediacy and the organic nature of it. The fact that it’s not the same show every night. That it is an analog experience. It’s not, you know, I’m a 20th-century boy. I mean, I have a phone and I have a computer, but I like being in the dark with the audience. It is a visceral kind of immediate, authentic feel to me that I’ve never fallen out of love with.
Craig Ferguson When: Sunday, April 12, at 7 p.m. Where: Capitol Center for the Arts, 44 S. Main St., Concord Tickets: $49 and up at ccanh.com
Upcoming comedy events
Thursday, April 9 Mae Martin: The Possum at Capitol Center for the Arts (44 S. Main St., Concord, ccanh.com) 7:30 p.m.
Friday, April 10 Mystery lineup at Don’t Tell Comedy (Art Gallery, Dover, donttellcomedy.com) 7 p.m. Bob Marley (also April 11 & 12) at Palace Theatre (80 Hanover St., Manchester, palacetheatre.org) 7:30 & 9 p.m.
Saturday, April 11 Frank Santorelli, Amy Tee at Chunky’s (707 Huse Road, Manchester, chunkys.com) 8:30 p.m. Amy Tee at Headliners Comedy Club (700 Elm St., Manchester, headlinersnh.com) 8 p.m. Mark Riley, Steve Scarfo, Jolanda Logan – Pittsfield VFW (3 Loudon Road, Pittsfield, ovationtix.com) 7 p.m. Lenny Clarke at Zorvino Vineyards (226 Main St., Sandown, eventbrite.com) 7 p.m.
Sunday, April 12 Craig Ferguson at Capitol Center for the Arts (44 S. Main St., Concord, ccanh.com) 7 p.m. Randy’s Cheeseburger Picnic (Trailer Park Boys) at Jewel Music Venue (61 Canal St., Manchester, eventbrite.com) 8 p.m.
Tuesday, April 14 Wrong Hill To Die On (game show) at Shaskeen Pub (909 Elm St., Manchester, eventbrite.com) 7 p.m.
Wednesday, April 15 New England Comedy Showcase at Shaskeen Pub (909 Elm St., Manchester, facebook.com/RubyRoomComedy) 9 p.m.
Thursday, April 16 Andrew McGuinness, Greg Boggis, Ryan Gartley at SoHo Asian Bistro (49 Lowell Road, Hudson, comedyonpurpose.com) 7:30 p.m. Garrison Keillor w/ Richard Dworksy at The Music Hall (23 Chestnut St., Portsmouth, themusichall.org) 7 p.m. Amy Tee, Matt Berry and Mark Scalia, at Chunky’s (707 Huse Road, Manchester, londonerrywomensclub.org,) 7 p.m.
Friday, April 17 Steve Sabo at Black Bear Vineyard (289 New Road, Salisbury, eventbrite.com) 6 p.m. Jenny Zigrino at Queen City Center (215 Canal St., Manchester, eventbrite.com) 6:30 p.m. Brian Glowacki & Jeff Koen at Tupelo Music Hall (10 A St., Derry, tupelohall.com) 8 p.m. Bean Shooter Comedy Party at Ya Mas Greek Tavern & Bar (275 Rockingham Park Blvd., Salem, eventbrite.com) 9 p.m.
Saturday, April 18 Hasan Minhaj & Ronny Chieng Debate to the Death at Casino Ballroom (169 Ocean Blvd., Hampton Beach, casinoballroom.com) 7 p.m. Mike Hanley at Chunky’s (707 Huse Road, Manchester, chunkys.com) 8:30 p.m. Brad Mastrangelo at Headliners Comedy Club (700 Elm St., Manchester, headlinersnh.com) 8 p.m. Frank Santorelli & Friends at Inn on Main (200 N. Main St., Wolfeboro, headlinersnh.com) 7:30 p.m. Steve Bjork at McCue’s Comedy Club (580 Portsmouth Traffic Circle, Portsmouth, eventbrite.com) 8 p.m. 603 Comedy Night atJack Burke, Kindra Lansburg, Tony Moschetto, Tristen Hoffler, Kaile Krenzer Sunstone Brewing (298 Rockingham Road, Londonderry, eventbrite.com) 7 p.m.
Sunday, April 19 Frank Santos Jr. R-Rated Hypnotist at Marker 21 (33 Dockside, Wolfeboro, eventbrite.com) 6 p.m. Michael Palascak at Music Hall Lounge (131 Congress St., Portsmouth, themusichall.org) 4:30 and 7 p.m. Late Nite Catechism at Nashua Center for the Arts (201 Main St., Nashua, etix.com) 2 p.m.
Wednesday, April 22 New England Comedy Showcase at Shaskeen Pub (909 Elm St., Manchester, facebook.com/RubyRoomComedy) 9 p.m.
Thursday, April 23 Steve Sweeney, Johnny Pizzi at Cello’s Farmhouse (143 Raymond Road, Candia, eventbrite.com) 10:30 p.m. James Austin Johnson (SNL) at Nashua Center for the Arts (201 Main St., Nashua, etix.com) 8 p.m. Lenny Clarke – Vanderbilt Room (48 Lowell Road, Hudson, eventbrite.com) 7:30 p.m.
Friday, April 24 Mystery lineup at Don’t Tell Comedy (Local Studio, Manchester, donttellcomedy.com) 7 p.m. TTTom Clark (CL Thomas) at Music Hall Lounge (131 Congress St., Portsmouth, themusichall.org) 7:30 p.m. Juston McKinney (also April 25) at Rochester Opera House (31 Wakefield St., Rochester, rochesteroperahouse.com) 7:30 p.m. Attic Roasts at Strange Brew Tavern (88 Market St., Manchester, eventbrite.com) 8 p.m.
Saturday, April 25 Tim McKeever at Chunky’s (707 Huse Road, Manchester, chunkys.com) 8:30 p.m. Jim Breuer at Colonial Theatre (Main Street, Laconia, etix.com) 8 p.m. Steve Scarfo at Headliners Comedy Club (700 Elm St., Manchester, headlinersnh.com) 8 p.m. Hi, I’m Mike Comedy (Michael Freeman) at Henniker Brewing Co. (129 Centervale Road, Henniker, eventbrite.com) 7 p.m.
Wednesday, April 29 New England Comedy Showcase at Shaskeen Pub (909 Elm St., Manchester, facebook.com/RubyRoomComedy) 9 p.m.
Thursday, April 30 Amy Tee at Music Hall Lounge (131 Congress St., Portsmouth, themusichall.org) 7 p.m.
Friday, May 1 Share It With the Class: A Teacher’s Comedy Show at Rex Theatre (23 Amherst St., Manchester, palacetheatre.org) 7:30 and 9 p.m. First Friday Comedy Night at Waterhorse Pub (361 Central St., Franklin) 8 p.m.
Saturday, May 2 Amy Tee at Chunky’s (707 Huse Road, Manchester, chunkys.com) 8:30 p.m. Tim McKeever at Headliners Comedy Club (700 Elm St., Manchester, headlinersnh.com) 8 p.m. Tyler Hittner at Rockingham Ballroom (22 Ash Swamp Road, Newmarket, bandsintown.com) 7 p.m.
Monday, May 4 Queen City Improv at Stark Brewing Co. (500 Commercial St., Manchester, queencityimprov.com) 7 p.m
Wednesday, May 6 New England Comedy Showcase at Shaskeen Pub (909 Elm St., Manchester, facebook.com/RubyRoomComedy) 9 p.m. Mike Rainey at BLEND603 (82 Fleet St., Portsmouth, eventbrite.com) 7:30 p.m. Mother of a Comedy Show w/ Christine Hurley, Kelly MacFarland, & Kerri Louise at Flying Monkey (39 Main St., Plymouth, etix.com) 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 9 Mike Koutrobis at Chunky’s (707 Huse Road, Manchester, chunkys.com) 8:30 p.m. Matt Barry at Headliners Comedy Club (700 Elm St., Manchester, headlinersnh.com) 8 p.m.
Wednesday, May 13 New England Comedy Showcase at Shaskeen Pub (909 Elm St., Manchester, facebook.com/RubyRoomComedy) 9 p.m.
Friday, May 15 Brian Glowacki at The Music Hall (23 Chestnut St., Portsmouth, themusichall.org) 8 p.m.
Saturday, May 16 Matt Barry at Chunky’s (707 Huse Road, Manchester, chunkys.com) 8:30 p.m. Next Stop Comedy –Mystery Comics at Earth Eagle Tavern (350 Route 108, Somersworth, eventbrite.com) 7:30 p.m. Rob Steen at Headliners Comedy Club (700 Elm St., Manchester, eventbrite.com) 8 p.m. Jim Bishop at McCue’s Comedy Club (580 Portsmouth Traffic Circle, Portsmouth, eventbrite.com) 8 p.m.
Sunday, May 17 Bored Teachers Comedy Tour at Colonial Theatre (Main Street, Laconia, etix.com) 8 p.m.
Wednesday, May 20 New England Comedy Showcase at Shaskeen Pub (909 Elm St., Manchester, facebook.com/RubyRoomComedy) 9 p.m.
Thursday, May 21 Caitlin Peluffo (also May 22 and May 23, two shows each day) at Music Hall Lounge (131 Congress St., Portsmouth, themusichall.org) 7 p.m. Mary Beth Collins, Adam Groppman, Steve Scarfo, Amanda Cohen at SoHo Asian Bistro (49 Lowell Road, Hudson, comedyonpurpose.com) 7:30 p.m.
Friday, May 22 Jody Sloane, Rob Steen, Jolanda Logan at Over The Moon Farmstead (1253 Upper City Road, Pittsfield, eventbrite.com) 7 p.m.
Saturday, May 23 Mike Koutrobis at Headliners Comedy Club (700 Elm St., Manchester, headlinersnh.com) 8 p.m. Carolyn Plummer, Matt Mcarthur, Spencer Cannistaro, Ron Richards, Kevin Brady at Sunstone Brewing Co. (298 Rockingham Road, Londonderry, eventbrite.com) 7 p.m. Steve Bjork, Ryan Gartley, and Jack Lynch at Tupelo Music Hall (10 A St., Derry, tupelohall.com) 8 p.m.
Wednesday, May 27 New England Comedy Showcase at Shaskeen Pub (909 Elm St., Manchester, facebook.com/RubyRoomComedy) 9 p.m.
Thursday, May 28 Sh*t Faced Shakespeare at BNH Stage (16 S. Main St., Concord, ccanh.com) 8 p.m.
Friday, May 29 Becky Robinson at Casino Ballroom (169 Ocean Blvd., Hampton Beach, casinoballroom.com) 8 p.m. Josh Day, Sarah May, Alex Williams, Mike Dupont, Danny Pee & Krister Rollins at Strange Brew Tavern (88 Market St., Manchester, eventbrite.com) 8 p.m.
Saturday, May 30 Jim Colliton at Music Hall Lounge (131 Congress St., Portsmouth, themusichall.org) 5:30 and 8 p.m.
The Queen City Rotary Club Foundation in Manchester is accepting application for its grants — an “Impact Grant” for organizations whose primary focus is serving underprivileged youth in the greater Manchester area with an award of $1,000 to $10,000 depending on the project, and a “Youth Services Grant” for organizations with a youth-focused mission, with a $1,000 maximum, according to a a press release. The deadline to apply is Friday, April 17, the release said. See queencityrotary.org.
MD fast track
The University of New Hampshire in partnership with Western Atlantic University of Medicine announced “a new Accelerated Pathway to MD (APMD) beginning in September 2026” according to a March 26 press release. “This initiative offers eligible high school graduates a direct and structured six-year route from undergraduate studies at UNH to medical training at WAUSM — providing a faster and more affordable pathway for students committed to becoming physicians,” the release said. “The health care industry is New Hampshire’s fastest-growing employment sector, according to the non-partisan non-profit group New Futures. While the sector is projected to add almost 10,000 jobs to the economy by 2030, the state is not projected to have enough workers to meet demand,” the release said. “The combined curriculum will significantly reduce the time to residency, allowing students to earn both a bachelor’s degree and a Doctor of Medicine (MD) in as little as six years….,” the release said. See unh.edu/accelerated-md-pathway.
Auction for a cause
Second Chance Ranch Rescue will host a live and silent auction at LaBelle Winery in Amherst on Sunday, April 12, from 1 to 4 p.m. featuring lunch and brunch bites, wine and mimosas, auctions and an opportunity to meet one of the rescue’s dogs, according to a press release. “All funds raised from our auction at LaBelle will directly support the development of our new facility,” said Kristin Jordan, founder of Second Chance Ranch Rescue, in the statement. The new facility will be “a homelike setting, which will allow dogs to learn about living in a home before successful placement into new adoptive families,” the release said. General admission tickets cost $40. See secondchanceranchrescue.com/events.
Comedy for a cause
The Londonderry Women’s Club will host a Comedy Night Fundraiser on Thursday, April 16, at 7 p.m. at Chunky’s Cinema in Manchester featuring comedians Amy Tee, Matt Berry and Mark Scalia, according to londonerrywomensclub.org, where you can find information to purchase tickets for $35 per person (or email comedynight@londonderrywomensclub.org). The event will also feature raffles, according to a press release. “Proceeds will support LWC’s community initiatives, including high school and adult women’s scholarships, providing snacks for local elementary students, partnering with End 68 Hours of Hunger to combat food insecurity, making & donating fleece caps for chemotherapy patients, supporting families through St. Jude’s Blue Angels, and other charitable programs,” the release said.
Andrew Pinard presents “Magic Play” on Wednesday, April 22, at 7:30 p.m. (doors open at 7 p.m.) at the Concord City Auditorium, 2 Prince St. in Concord. All ages welcome, according to the press release. See walkerlecture.org.
“Clear to Me,” described as “a group exhibition exploring light, shadow, and the quiet power of negative space,” is open at Mosaic Art Collective, 66 Hanover St., Suite 201, in Manchester with an opening reception on Saturday, April 11, from 5 to 7 p.m. See mosaicartcollective.com.
HeARTwork, the Concord Arts Market event at Kimball Jenkins, 266 N. Main St. in Concord, will take place Saturday, April 11, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. with the theme “Life,” according to kimballjenkins.com.
Cue Zero Theatre Company will present Dead in The Water, an interactive murder mystery, on Friday, April 10, at 7:30 p.m. at the Arts Academy of New Hampshire in Salem. See artsacademynh.org.
Jon Butcher and Diane Blue join together at Tupelo
Collaborations make the rock and blues world go ’round. Like Shades of Blue, led by psychedelic guitar hero Jon Butcher and singer Diane Blue, also a talented harmonica player. The band includes a rhythm section of AJ Vallee and John Ryder on drums and bass, along with guitarist Chuck Farrell.
Farrell, the force behind revival band Once An Outlaw, made the group happen.
“He put together a combo and said, ‘I’d like to have you and Jon Butcher featured in front,’” Blue recalled recently. “The first time we performed together, it was undeniable chemistry on stage. We were like, ‘We should make this a thing.’ Now it’s a thing.”
There is inspiring give and take between the fiery Stratocaster playing of Butcher, a New England Music Hall of Fame inductee, and Blue’s soulful singing. The two move between blues rockers like “Born Under A Bad Sign,” Bill Withers’ soulful “Use Me” and a blistering rendition of Hendrix’s “Red House.”
Another set highlight is a revved-up duet of the ’60s nugget (later a Grand Funk hit) “Some Kind of Wonderful.” Butcher will use the song to introduce Blue on harmonica and ask her how she learned to play it. “Nothin’ to it, you just suck and blow,” she’ll reply with a laugh, adding, “that’s what an old blues man told me, anyway.”
The real story about that goes back to Blue’s beginnings as a performer, singing in her living room with guitar player Paul White and later cutting her professional teeth in Newport, Rhode Island, venues like the Blues Café. She took up the mouth harp at White’s behest.
“‘Honk on this and see what you can do,’” she recalled White telling her. “‘Because there are a lot of chicks who can sing, but you’ll differentiate yourself from the crowd if you have something special that you can offer … see if you can get good at it.’ So I tried, and I just kept trying. I’m still trying.”
Blue got a big boost when Ronnie Earl caught her in a coffee shop in the early 2010s and invited her to sit in at his shows. In 2014 she became the first female member of the Boston blues legend’s band.
“What struck me was her ability to sing anything, from Sam Cooke to blues,” Earl said in a 2025 Blues Blast story. “She has a natural voice, a beautiful voice.”
She’s still with them, but performing with Shades of Blue is different.
“My job is to sing and to make sure that he’s OK on stage,” she said of Earl. “John Butcher and I have a mutual respect; we egg each other on to really strut our stuff. This is a chance for me to shine with a very strong backing band and all the encouragement to be the star of the show.”
Some of Blue’s solo cuts are in the set, like a rocking cover of Carol Fran’s Louisiana jump blues nugget “Knock Knock,” from her 2019 LP Look For The Light. The high points, however, happen when Butcher and Blue trade off. Bo Diddley’s “Mona” and “Spider In My Web,” a growling blues song written by Alvin Lee of Ten Years After, are good examples.
After doing just a few shows last year, Shades of Blue’s calendar is filling. A Tupelo Music Hall show on April 4 will be a twofer, with high-kicking harp player and singer James Montgomery sharing a band.
“James and I have co-billed on some of these Chuck Farrell productions in the past,” Blue said. “What usually happens is I do a set, and then he’ll do one.”
Shades of Blue w/ special guest James Montgomery When: Saturday, April 4, at 8 p.m. Where: Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry Tickets: $45 at tupelohall.com
