10 Dallas Comedians You Need to Know

Comedians are like rappers: They typically face the crowd alone, use a poetic language, and are worth following on Twitter. Like some rappers, some comedians have ghosts. At least one of the comedians listed here probably wrote material for a comedian with a bit more name recognition. 

Dallas-Fort Worth has many impressive standup comedians and only a few up and comers are listed here. In addition to performing in comedy clubs, they host karaoke nights at bars, sometimes they setup a show at a music venue like Three Links, perform standing on the floor at Twilite Lounge, write comedy revues, make video shorts, or even perform in someone’s backyard. Comedy is an addiction and we have our fair share of local addicts.

A comedian based out of Fort Worth, Grant Redmond wrote a sketch comedy review called Fraud City that was performed at the Dallas Comedy House in March. He also played a lunatic who takes Easter a little too seriously in a short called "The Bad Egg," which had quite a few hits on YouTube. Onstage, he enjoys disparaging himself and others with an outlandish demeanor.

Clint Werth doesn’t like being onstage or even being around people. But he just happens to be one of the most reliably funny comedians in Dallas with a commanding stage presence. Sometimes he’ll toss out a quick joke he thought of right before his set with brevity that immediately gets a crowd’s attention. But many of his jokes are long form, covering topics from many different angles. Werth is perhaps best known for dark humor, but he also enjoys surprising audiences with jokes that use pop culture references.

There is something about Josh Johnson that makes you want to listen to him. If you tried to relay one of his jokes to one of your friends, they probably wouldn’t think it was very funny. But Johnson has great delivery. His timing is effortless and he takes interesting pauses devoid of any sort of nervousness. When he’s not talking loud enough or mumbling and you can’t understand him, he still get laughs. Even when he comes across as indifferent to crowd reaction, Johnson is still funny. But he definitely knows how to work a crowd.


Brad LaCour makes great use of shamelessness and irreverence. The way he describes other people in his jokes is hilariously detached and simplistic. LaCour can also disarm a crowd with moral relevance. It isn’t easy to start a joke by mentioning a couple that divorced due to drug use and assault. But LaCour continues by wondering how awful a person would have to be to get hit by a pothead. That’s quite a rationalization.

Christian Hughes’ jokes are short, strange, and usually self-deprecating. Not only that, but he talks fast and rarely pauses. His humor is hard to describe, but it has a quirkiness that definitely works. It’s been said that a comedian should average a laugh every 7 seconds. Perhaps Hughes heard this and took it quite literally.

Aaron Aryanpur also has a fast pace, but his jokes are long form and he has an impeccable sense of rhythm. Jokes about the wife and kids typically aren’t edgy. But Aarynpur has an incredible way of capturing the anger and frustration that goes with the territory while making it hilarious. He has a very unique approach to themes that are unquestionably universal.


If Linda Stogner made music she would be an outsider musician. She has created a very strange character that gets huge laughs. But as bizarre as she is, her act is very clean and lighthearted. Stogner won the 2014 Funniest Comedian in Texas contest at the Addison Improv. She even won the approval of Eric Bogosian, the legendary writer and actor known for his unusual comedic monologues.

Andrew Woods is almost like Patrick Bateman doing standup. His appearance is stringently clean cut and preppy, but his humor is dark, dry, and dirty. He really seems to thrive on making audiences cringe. But he’s funny as hell. Woods did a great job opening for Bridgett Everett at Sons of Hermann Hall in March.

Tara Brown has a delightfully gross sense of humor. She hosts an open mic at The Boiled Owl Tavern as well as a mix of karaoke and comedy at The Goat. She has an especially great Twitter account with a shitload of followers, a YouTube channel with videos about allergies and urine, and standup jokes about breastfeeding.

Paul Varghese has a wonderfully casual presence onstage. He addresses the crowd like he is just talking shit with some of his friends and really makes comedy seem effortless. Varghese has been doing standup since 2001. He competed on Last Comic Standing and appeared in comedy specials on Showtime and Comedy Central. He has also opened for Dave Chappelle and Joan Rivers.