5 Ridiculous Tweets From Colin Quinn’s Troll Twitter Account

Colin Quinn brings his one-man show Unconstitutional to the Wyly Theater at 8 p.m. Friday. While he might be an SNL veteran, TV host, and stand-up comedian, Mr. Colin Quinn is better known these days for his conceptually ridiculous Twitter account. Sounding absolutely nothing like Colin Quinn himself, his account…

Neil Hamburger on Flat Tires, Carrot Top and Destiny

You’re never quite sure where you are when you talk to Neil Hamburger. The standup walks a fine line that can leave you dancing between genuine reality and some bizarre universe where you’re not sure if the hand you hold in front of your face is real or even your…

With Rehearsal for Murder! Pegasus Theatre Revives DOA Play with Killer Design

It’s all there in black and white. For nearly 30 years Pegasus Theatre has been presenting Dallas writer-actor Kurt Kleinmann’s comedy take-offs on old B-movie murder mysteries and Hitchcock thrillers. The shows are presented in Kleinmann’s trademarked visual style that eliminates everything but shimmery shades of black, white and gray…

A Q&A with Raul Sanchez, the Funniest Comic in Texas

Three tours with the Army in Iraq and Afghanistan left Raul Sanchez with post-traumatic stress disorder, crippling anxiety attacks and, at one time, a substance abuse problem. So, naturally he turned to comedy. That might sound odd, but for Sanchez, the San Antonio standup comedian recently named the Funniest Comic…

Women Dominated Dallas Theater in 2013

Ladies, take a bow. And another and another. This was your year on North Texas stages. Local actresses turned in a remarkable number of memorable performances in musicals, comedies and dramas in 2013. And it’s not every year that women get so many good roles in live theater in Dallas…

The Game’s Afoot Needs a Good Kicking

A theater critic character is murdered in the first act of Ken Ludwig’s comedy-mystery The Game’s Afoot (or Holmes for the Holidays). Meanwhile, in an aisle seat at WaterTower Theatre, an actual critic wishes for the sweet release of sudden death. The Game’s Afoot, surely the worst play on any…

Goofy Visuals Save Off-key Plaid Tidings

The harmonal balance is way off among the quartet of singers in One Thirty Productions’ Plaid Tidings, the holiday musical now doing matinees at the Bath House Cultural Center. But does it matter? This is writer Stuart Ross’ terrible sequel to his awful show Forever Plaid, which was about a…

Plano’s Panto Pigs Porks Fun at Fairy Tales

Beneath the groaning puns, audience singalongs and glow-in-the-dark puppets, Theatre Britain’s annual Christmas “panto,” The Three Little Pigs, offers some cunningly subversive comedy. Good pantos always do. It’s taken 16 years for Theatre Britain, now based at the Cox Building Playhouse in Plano, to educate the audience about this style…

Bull Game Plays it Safe with Metaphorical Play About Competition

Dead White Zombies’ latest, Bull Game, written and directed by Thomas Riccio, promises more than it delivers. Maybe that’s the point. Maybe not. Staged in a drafty warehouse in the new Trinity Groves hipsterhood west of the Trinity River, the show is an overstretched metaphor about the American obsession with…

Five Plays on Local Stages That Won’t Make You Barf Sugarplums

Enough with the feelgood shows of the season. Bring on the feel-bad entertainment! If you’re feelin’ Scrooge-y and would rather throttle Tiny Tim than sit through another Christmas Carol, here are five alternatives amid the blizzard of holiday fare. Race, Kitchen Dog Theater, through December 14. David Mamet’s tight little…

Mamet Argues Both Sides in Legal Drama Race

David Mamet writes great arguments. He is, arguably, the current American theater master at constructing conflict among smart characters driven by greed, anger or envy. Mamet’s best plays — Glengarry Glen Ross, American Buffalo, Speed-The-Plow — are built around tense back-and-forth verbal battles among vicious, ambitious, often desperate men. And…

A Weekend With Nick Offerman

Nick Offerman likes red meat. This much is clear. The lines between him and the comic creation Ron Swanson, one of the most consistently funny sitcom characters ever made, are distinctly blurred. Both are huge fans of woodworking. Both enjoy self-sufficiency. Both would rather there were less government encroachment into…