On Stage; Comedy comes to Candlelight

By Denny Dyroff, Entertainment Editor, The Times

Area comedy fans are always eager to attend live performances of stand-up comedy but are not overly enthused about having to go to Philadelphia to do it. Unfortunately, most of the comedy clubs are located in and around Center City.

Fortunately for those fans, there is one night a month when they can attend a show featuring top-flight comedians without the hassle of driving in Philly and having to deal with irritating traffic and a scarcity of parking spaces.

That one night is the night when the Candlelight Theater (2208 Millers Road, Arden, Delaware, www.candlelighttheatredelaware.org) presents its monthly edition of “Candlelight Comedy Club.”

On January 23, it’s time for the January edition of “Candlelight Comedy Club” at the venue just over the Pennsylvania-Delaware state line – a venue that features ample free parking.

This month’s main act will be John Poveromo with Joanne Filian and Belynda Cleare as the opening acts.

Poveromo, a veteran and versatile comedian, is likely to change his set on the spot based on the crowd and whatever is on his mind.

Born in Brooklyn and raised in Toms River, Poveromo gravitated toward humor ever since he was a youngster.

“I didn’t hang out in the music scene,” said Poveromo, during a phone interview.

“I was much more interested in stand-up. For me, humor was a way to cope with stuff. I saw grownups coping with things with humor. I remember when I was about five and my parents were watching a video of Richard Jeni’s ‘Crazy from the Heat’ and they were laughing like crazy.

“I also really liked Robin Williams from his TV shows like ‘Mork & Mindy’ and that was another gateway to comedy for me. Then, I got into Jerry Seinfeld, Paul Reiser and Ellen and found out they all started with stand-up. And I liked stand-ups because they told it like it was.”

Poveromo’s knack for being funny became evident during his high school days.

“I ended up getting named ‘Class Comedian’ out of 500 kids at Toms River East High School,” said Poveromo. “My sense of humor was always about cracking jokes.

“I went to college after I graduated high school at Brookdale Community College. I didn’t want to go to college, but I had to do it because if you didn’t go to college, you were a failure.

“I left school after a year and took a stand-up course in New York. That was back in 2005. My first time on stage was at Carolines On Broadway – no pressure, right?”

Carolines on Broadway is a venue for stand-up comedy located in Times Square in New York City on Broadway between 49th and 50th Street. It is one of the most established, famous, and recognized stand-up comedy clubs in the United States.

“I was taking a risk,” said Poveromo. “I wasn’t going up with ‘five minutes of comedy that worked’ attitude. I thought – you just go on with whatever when you get onstage.

“In the beginning, I’d go up with a couple ideas. I just do my own material – whatever I wanted talk about – because I’m naturally funny.”

Since childhood, Poveromo has enjoyed making strangers laugh. He has written comedy for shows on HBO and VH1, as well as his own book, “Drawings From a Nobody,” which features his comic-strip style drawings of scenes from everyday life.

Poveromo’s perfect blend of self-deprecation and optimism makes him a dynamic and unpredictable performer who is both engaging and fun to watch as he struggles to make sense of himself and the world around him.

He can be heard on Sirius XM Radio, has been featured at the Jersey City Comedy Festival and The New York Underground Comedy Festival, and has appeared on Comcast On Demand’s “Young Comedians Showcase.”

Poveromo also has written for a variety of shows, including ESPN’s Sports Nation, Current TV’s Viewpoint with John Fugelsang, Joy Behar’s Say Anything on HLN, The Independents, and CNN Newsroom, as well as Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld, Hannity, and VH1’s “Best Of” series.

Poveromo hosts “Dystopia Tonight,” a livestreaming show on Apple Podcasts.

The show was conceived during the pandemic, when comedians such as Poveromo were brainstorming ways to adapt and reinvent themselves.

It started as comics sitting around shooting the breeze (Tom Papa, Judy Gold), and has expanded to include actors (Megan Cavanagh, Ed Begley Jr., Ed Asner!), musicians (Art Alexakis from Everclear, Marlana Sheetz of Milo Greene), and visual artists (comic book artist John Romita Jr. and Pulitzer-winning editorial cartoonist Steve Breen), and most recently comedy legend Lewis Black.

“Dystopia Tonight” was born out of the Covid-19 Pandemic to give people a light-hearted break from the absurdity of the world around them by showcasing artists, comedians, musicians, and actors from all across the entertainment field.

Aside from touring the country as a comedian, Poveromo is also an accomplished cartoonist. His cartoons have been published in numerous magazines, newspapers and online publications. He put out a collection of his cartoons in a book called, “Drawings From A Nobody,” that was released in 2018.

Poveromo has already started his schedule of live shows for 2023 and now is headed to the stage at Candlelight.

Video link for John Poveromo — https://youtu.be/wCz0PNzJlw8.

Tickets are $40 and include complimentary light fare buffet, cash bar, and free parking. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the show starts at 7:30 p.m.

The Candlelight Dinner Theatre’s brand-new mainstage production – “Something Rotten” – is having its first full weekend Friday through Sunday. The show, which opened on January 18, will run through February 23.

The paths of Debra Devi and Jamey’s House of Music (32 South Lansdowne Avenue, Lansdowne, 215-477-9985,www.jameyshouseofmusic.com) inevitably flowed together last year.

Not surprisingly, the confluence of touring musician and music venue produced smooth sailing.

The audience loved Devi at her show at Jamey’s last fall – and she fell in love with the venue.

Another chapter will be written this weekend when Jamey’s hosts a show by Devi on January 24.

Devi is a multi-talented modern woman. She fronts a blues/rock band, composes music for film and television and is an author.

Devi plays powerful blues-rockers and blistering psychedelic jams flavored with her soulful voice and expressive guitar playing.

Devi’s new live EP, “Jamification Station Vol. 1,” captures her Jersey City band at full throttle. The EP reached #5 on the Relix/Jambands.com Top 30 Radio Chart and then stayed on the chart for three months.

Devi, who has lived all over the country, has called Jersey City home for the last six years.

“I was born in Florida — in Jacksonville– and then grew up in Milwaukee,” said Devi, during a phone interview from her home in North Jersey. “Growing up in Milwaukee, I was exposed to a lot of Chicago blues.

“I went to high school in Milwaukee and then got a degree in economics at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

“I always wanted to be a writer, but my parents wanted me to choose a more practical career. I had a journalism minor at the University of Wisconsin and then got into Columbia University for grad school where I majored in journalism.

“I put it to good use. When I first was living in New York, I was a little punk rocker in the East Village. I also played in different kinds of bands. I had been playing electric guitar for about six months.

“I always loved the blues, so I started writing and singing my own songs. It was more 70s blues/rock than punk.”

Devi’s self-produced debut, “Get Free” (True Nature Records/Redeye), received raves from Vintage Guitar, Jambase, Marie Claire (Italy) and Guitar International.

“My guitar playing is very influenced by Chicago blues,” said Devi. “The first show I saw was Son Seals and Koko Taylor at the Metropole. I try to do what Son does – not play a lot of notes but just play the right note.

“Blues has been a guidepost ever since. Blues taught me what I know about music.

“My band and I play blues/rock with improvisation – with jamming. We love to improvise. People love that spontaneity.

“What is exciting today is the jam band scene. They’re taking flight from improvisation. I’m one of the few females in the jam band scene.”
Devi has opened for Joan Osborne, Jesse Malin, Ana Popovic, Sarah Shook and the Disarmers, Uprooted (Michael Glialiki) and Marshall Crenshaw. In 2023, she co-headlined the Haverford Music Festival with Joe Louis Walker and The Bongos, and the East Pete Blues Festival with Greg Sover.

Gov’t Mule bassist Jorgen Carlsson joined Devi on her previous EP, “A Zillion Stars Overhead.”

“I released that album in April 2020 – not a good time to do that with the pandemic just starting,” said Devi. “My most recent album is ‘Jamification Station Vol. 1.’”

“Jamification Station Vol. 1” is a live EP culled from Devi’s livestream show, “Jamification Station,” hosted by American Blues Scene. Four tracks capture Devi and her band at full throttle, from catchy “Home Again” to a blistering rendition of Jimi Hendrix’s “Crosstown Traffic.” Also featured is a soulful blues-rocker, “Get Free” and uplifting Southern-rock tune “The River.”

The EP was released on June 20, 2022. Musicians on the recording were: Debra Devi – vocal, guitar; Kevin Jones – bass, background vocal; John Roccesano – drums, background vocal; and Martin Schmid – keys, background vocal.

All songs recorded live by Roccesano at Silver Horse Sound in Hoboken, New Jersey except “The River,” which was recorded live by Corey Zack at The Cocoon in Jersey City. It was produced by Devi and Roccesano, mixed by Roccesano and mastered by Fred Kevorkian.

“We did 27 Livestream concerts during the pandemic,” said Devi. “Right now, we’re mixing ‘Jamification Station Vol. 2’.

Devi is the author of the popular book, “The Language of the Blues” (foreword by Dr. John) which won the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award. The book is blurbed by Bonnie Raitt, Joe Bonamassa, Hal Willner, Ministry singer Al Jourgensen, Ed Sanders, Bob Margolin and Jimmy Vivino.

Devi composes and performs songs for film and television, including “Tenderness” (Laura Dern, Russell Crowe), “Getting Off” (Christine Harnos, Brooke Smith), “Driven-Tim McGraw” (VH-1), “Fight Like a Girl” (Maureen Shea, Kimberly Tomes).

Her screenplay “The South Bronx Entrepreneurship Club” is a Big Apple Film Festival semi-finalist, adapted from the book “Goodbye Homeboy: How My Students Drove Me Crazy” and “Inspired a Movement,” which she co-authored with former special education teacher and Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship founder Steve Mariotti.

Devi is truly a modern-day Renaissance woman.”

Video link for Debra Devi – https://youtu.be/WSWFDitPX2Q.

The show on January 24 will start at 8 p.m.

Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door.

Pay-per-view tickets are $15.

On January 25, Jamey’s House of Music will host a twin bill featuring JP Reali Band and Bluestime!

Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the door.

Pay-per-view tickets are $15.

For years, Jamey’s had a jazz-based show every Thursday called “Jazz at Jamey’s” and an event every Sunday called “Sunday Blues Brunch & Jam.”

“Starting January 1, we switched from ‘Jazz Jams’ to a monthly series with four or five themed shows each Thursday,” said Jamie Reilly, owner and manager of Jamey’s House of Music.

“We had success with the Thursday jazz shows but we wanted to give our audiences more. The first Thursday of the month will be the Philadelphia Blues Society.”

“The second Thursday will be Dueling Pianos and Lisa Chavous will have her show every third Thursday. The fourth Thursday will be A.C. Steel and the Perpetrators. There will be a movie night in the five months when there is a fifth Thursday.”

Every Sunday, Jamey’s presents “SUNDAY BLUES BRUNCH & JAM” featuring the Philly Blues Kings. On the second Sunday of each month, the featured act is the Girke-Davis Project which features club owner Jamey Reilly, Roger Girke, Glenn Bickel, Fred Berman and Colgan-Davis.

Chuck Prophetand His Cumbia Shoes, which features two members of the celebrated Salinas, CA-based cumbia band ¿Qiensave? along with Prophet’s long-time band, The Mission Express, will play World Cafe Live (3025 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, www.worldcafelive.com) on January 24.

The show will be an album release event in support of Prophet and his band’s recently released album, “Wake The Dead?”

Recorded live in-studio with The Mission Express and ¿Qiensave?, a band of brothers from a farming community a hundred miles from San Francisco, “Wake The Dead” marks a departure for Prophet, best known for his Americana and rock leanings.

Prophet has created a genre-defying album that bridges cultures, generations, and musical boundaries. An extraordinary and unlikely pairing, “Wake The Dead” blends Prophet and ¿Qiensave? seamlessly diving headfirst into the cumbia music world.

Cumbia refers to a number of musical rhythms and folk-dance traditions of Latin America, generally involving musical and cultural elements from American Indigenous peoples, Europeans and Africans during colonial times. Cumbia is said to have come from funeral traditions in the Afro-Colombian community.

Cumbia traditionally uses three drums (tambora, tambor alegre, llamador) and three flutes (gaita hembra and gaito macho, flauta de millo). The genre frequently incorporates brass instruments and piano.

The sound of cumbia can be characterized as having a simple “chu-chucu-chu” rhythm created by the guacharaca.

Most Hispanic American countries have made their own regional version of Cumbia, some of them with their own particularity.

Colombian cumbia is a musical rhythm and traditional folk dance from Colombia. It has elements of three different cultures — American Indigenous, African, and Spanish. The Colombian cumbia is the origin of all the other variations.

Prophet’s fascination with cumbia, a vibrant genre originating from Colombia, began after experiencing a weekly cumbia night at a local San Francisco haunt.

He quickly became obsessed: collecting old vinyl from Latin America, studying its origins, DJing, and loading his friends up with new mixes every time they came to visit.

Following a cancer diagnosis, he had a lot of time to sit and listen as he went through treatments.

When a stage four lymphoma diagnosis forced him off the road and into the hospital, Prophet didn’t know if he’d live long enough to see the end of the year, let alone get back on tour.

According to Prophet, “I was going through a tunnel. It was dark. But I had music — music to play, music to listen to, music to get me out of my head. Music was my savior.”

Leading up to the album’s release, four singles and videos were released including “Red Sky Night,” which shows behind-the-scenes footage of Prophet, his band The Mission Express, and ¿Qiensave? in the studio during the album recording sessions and  “First Came The Thunder,” a melancholy tune that follows a lonesome lover chasing down a memory that hangs perpetually out of reach.

The other videos were the title track “Wake The Dead,” inspired by the Mexican tradition of honoring the deceased with altars laden with offerings and “Sugar Into Water,” of which Prophet notes, “We play Texas a lot, and this song is a nod to that San Antonio sound. It’s a confection with the spirit of Doug Sahm and the Texas Tornados baked in.”

Oh yeah – Prophet is now thankfully in full remission.

Video link for Chuck Prophet – https://youtu.be/lmEpztGvPsY.

The show at WCL on January 24 will start at 8 p.m.

Tickets are $30 and $42.

Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center (226 North High Street, West Chester, www.uptownwestchester.org) will present Better Than Bacon on January 24 and The Brit Pack on January 25.

Kennett Flash (102 Sycamore Alley, Kennett Square, 484-732-8295, http://www.kennettflash.org) will present “An Evening with Nigel Wearne” on January 25.

Elkton Music Hall (107 North Street, Elkton, Maryland, www.elktonmusichall.com) will host “Rift & Bones Brigade: Tributes to Phish & The Dead” on January 25.

On January 28 at the Theatre of the Living Arts (334 South Street, Philadelphia, http://www.lnphilly.com), acclaimed actor Ben Barnes (Westworld, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Punisher, The Picture of Dorian Gray) will celebrate his debut album, “Where The Light Gets In,” which was released on January 10 via Kartel Music Group.

With a combined social media reach of over 3.4M+ on Instagram & TikTok, Barnes’ live performances have drawn more than 17,000 fans across 10 sold-out headline shows in the U.S., Europe, and the U.K. — at iconic venues like NYC’s Bowery Ballroom and LA’s Troubadour, & Hotel Café.

Influenced by a mix of ’70s rock, Motown, and musical legends like Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, and Queen, Barnes’ love for music began in childhood — singing in choirs and performing tribute concerts for Sinatra and Stevie Wonder as a teen.

While his acting career flourished, Barnes continued songwriting and eventually embraced music fully during the pandemic when his singing videos gained viral attention.

With “Where The Light Gets In,” which was produced by Maroon 5’s James Valentine and Sam Farrar, Barnes chronicles the stages of a relationship, from euphoric beginnings to heartbreak, nostalgia, and renewal. The record blends his two greatest passions: storytelling and performance

Video link for Ben Barnes — https://youtu.be/uqdZvYbN1D8.

The show on January 28 will start at 8 p.m.

Tickets are $37.