Jim “will be joined by comedians, movie and TV stars, and icons of pop culture.”
On Thursday, March 18, Boston comic Jim McCue and friends will deliver a “zany mix of standup, improv, games, and weirdness” with their Stream of Comedy experience. The Boston Comedy Festival honcho blew up over the past year with his latest special, Nothing Personal, clocking several hundred thousand views.
Rolling that momentum into this upcoming endeavor, Jim “will be joined by comedians, movie and TV stars, and icons of pop culture.” It’s “part classic vintage talk show, part game show, part variety show, part comedy show … its new, its improv, its live, its unpredictable, its pop culture,” with guests including Candy Clark, Burton Gilliam, and Butch Patrick (Eddie Munster), plus comedians Janelle Draper, Corey Rodrigues, Cher Lynn, Rodney Norman and Kathe Farris, among others.
We caught up with McCue while he was giving his cat insulin shots.
How did your quarantine begin? Hadn’t you just got off one of the cruise ships you perform on?
I came back [from the cruise] at the end of February. I always do a St. Patrick’s Day comedy show [on land], and we were the last show at the Portsmouth Music Hall. It’s a year from the time the bottom fell out on us.
How have you liked doing online comedy? I know a lot of comics hate it.
Personally, I’m kind of old school. There’s no substitute for [the live show]. But we did the Boston Comedy Festival virtually, and it was better than I thought it was going to be. We had a lot of industry [professionals and booking agents] tune in. We had agencies asking for links for all of their agents.
[McCue also went viral himself during quarantine, with his DryBar Comedy Special racking up more than 2.2 million views on social media.]
How about other opportunities that you may not have had in regular times?
I did an interview with Lewis Black on my Big Comedy Festival Podcast [Ed. note: McCue is being modest, he’s known Black for years and has brought him to Boston before, but was simply saying that it was easier than usual to get this kind of talent involved.] He was willing to do that, and he wasn’t alone.
We also partnered with Flappers [on the West Coast], and that worked out for us as well. Other than that, though, people didn’t want to try to do material in their underwear in their living room.
Play the games with the talent on Zoom or just watch a wacky TV show. VIP level involves Zoom access to chat with the celebrities, and other activities, along with the random chance to be part of the games and be seen on screen in the show. General admission and VIP allows attendees to re-watch the program through Sunday March 21, after which it will be on-demand through Stellar. More tickets and info at stellartickets.com.
Dig Staff means this article was a collaborative effort. Teamwork, as we like to call it.
