{"id":36570,"date":"2021-02-11T09:19:45","date_gmt":"2021-02-11T14:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=36570"},"modified":"2021-02-11T09:19:51","modified_gmt":"2021-02-11T14:19:51","slug":"on-stage-broussard-takes-unusual-path-to-comedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=36570","title":{"rendered":"On Stage: Broussard takes unusual path to comedy"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Denny Dyroff<\/strong>, Entertainment Editor, The Times\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Matthew Broussard<\/p><\/div>\n

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the area entertainment scene into a horrible situation.<\/p>\n

The almost non-existent availability of live shows in Philadelphia featuring national acts is no laughing matter.<\/p>\n

But shows that are on the list of coming attractions are laughing matters \u2013 because they are shows at some of the city\u2019s well-respected comedy clubs such as Helium with 21 performances between now and February 27 and Punch Line Philly with a show on February 21.<\/p>\n

This weekend\u2019s comedy headliner is Matthew Broussard, who will be in Philly for a series of seven shows from February 11-14 at Helium Comedy Club (2031 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, philadelphia.heliumcomedy.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Stand Up artists find different paths to follow to arrive in the world of comedy \u2013 growing up with a parent who was a comedian, being the class clown from first grade on, being funny in prison to create a protective bubble. <\/p>\n

Broussard took a different route. He earned a degree in Applied Mathematics from Rice University and then pursued a career in finance.<\/p>\n

His father was a Ph.D. chemist. His mother has a master\u2019s degree in microbiology and his brother is a mechanical\/aeronautical engineer. Broussard followed in their footsteps and studied mechanical engineering, as well as computational and applied mathematics at Rice University.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up in Atlanta and then graduated from Rice in 2010,\u201d said Broussard, during a phone interview Monday afternoon from his home in Brooklyn, New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen I worked in finance in Houston for a couple years. After a while, I started doing open mics in Houston. I was doing it just for the fun of it. I was as doing everything and anything to get a laugh.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of my influences when I first started was early George Carlin and also Louie (Anderson) and (Daniel) Tosh. I also like Jon Stewart a lot. He\u2019s smart, sincere and funny.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually, Broussard decided to take his act west and relocated in West Hollywood.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did L.A., for a couple years,\u201d said Broussard, who was the winner of \u201cHouston\u2019s Funniest Person\u201d in 2012. \u201cI filmed my half-hour special\u00a0on Comedy Central there. I also did my first \u2018Late Night Experience\u2019 in L.A.\u201d<\/p>\n

Broussard\u2019s television and movie credits include \u201cThe League,\u201d \u201cThe Mindy Project,\u201d \u201cConan,\u201d \u201cGuy Code,\u201d and \u201cRoast Battle\u201d along with the film \u201cBalls Out,\u201d starring\u00a0Jake Lacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t stay that long in L.A.,\u201d said Broussard, who was born in Summit, New Jersey. \u201cIt\u2019s not my town \u2013 too much insanity and too many shallow people.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I moved to New York. When I got to New York, I did the clubs and alternate routes \u2013 the younger audiences, the hipper crowds. I also did college gigs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were levels of comfort I reached in my career in New York in 2017. Doing comedy shows every night, I started to feel confident.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m now at a point that there is more data to indicate that this is not a fleeting main job. Still, having a safety net (math degree from one of the best science universities in the country and successful career in the world of finance) helped me when I started. I knew I\u2019d have a career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Broussard also has another career running concurrently. In 2011, he created the weekly puzzle-based webcomic — mondaypunday.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Video link for Matthew Broussard — https:\/\/youtu.be\/0jX49de8G8w<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Shows at the Helium Comedy Club are scheduled for February 11 at 7:30 p.m., February 12 at 7:15 and 9:30 p.m., and February 13 and 14 at<\/p>\n

7 and 9:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Tickets, which are not sold individually because of capacity restrictions and social distancing, are $44 for a two-person table or $88 for a four-person table.<\/p>\n

Other upcoming shows at Helium this month are Shane Gillis on February 16, Ryan Niemiller from November 18-20, Ahamed Weinberg on February 21, Ryan Long on February 24 and Adam Ferrara on February 25 and 26.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a fan of blues music, you\u2019re definitely familiar with Delta blues, Chicago blues and Memphis blues. You probably are also familiar with Kansas City blues, British blues, Texas blues and maybe even West Coast blues.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Gabe Stillman<\/p><\/div>\n

Now it\u2019s time for aficionados of blues music to open their ears to Williamsport blues \u2013 blues music delivered by ace guitarist Gabe Stillman and his trio.<\/p>\n

Stillman might be the only accomplished blues guitarist to emerge from Williamsport, which is regarded as the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Central Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

The city hosted the Underground Railway for 35 years prior to the Civil War and is also the birthplace of\u00a0Little League Baseball. Williamsport has produced pro football, basketball and baseball players — and 2004 Olympic sprint gold medalist Joanna Dove Hayes.<\/p>\n

The latest gift to the world from the city on the Susquehanna River is Stillman \u2013 one of the country\u2019s most promising young blues\/roots guitarists.<\/p>\n

On February 12, Stillman and his band will perform live onstage and online via Livestream at the at Sellersville Theater (24 West Temple Avenue, Sellersville, 215-257-5808,\u00a0www.st94.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Stillman has been studying guitar for almost a decade-and-a-half.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started taking guitar lessons when I was 11,\u201d said Stillman, during a phone interview Tuesday evening from his home in Williamsport. \u201cI\u2019m 25 now so I\u2019ve been playing for 14 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started out, I wanted to play heavy rock and heavy metal. Listening to guitarists in those genres, I realized that heir playing was very fast and technically complicated. A teacher told me to learn rock by getting ingo the blues.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I started listening to a lot of blues guitarists like B.B. King, Freddie King, Albert King, Buddy Guy and Elmore James. I was also listening to guitarist such as Duane Allman and Derek Trucks. I realized \u2013 hey, I can do this. I got hooked on blues and R&B \u2013 and jazz. When I was 13 or 14, I started to perform live.\u201d<\/p>\n

A key stage in Stillman\u2019s development came at the Uptown Music Collective in Williamsport.<\/p>\n

For 20 years, the Uptown Music Collective has been providing exceptional modern music education grounded in traditional educational principles. Its programs engage students through an emphasis on modern genres including rock, pop, soul, blues, country, R&B, and funk.<\/p>\n

\u201cI studied at the Uptown Music Collective when I was younger,\u201d said Stillman. \u201cI also taught there after I got out of college.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stillman spent his college years in Boston where he got a degree in \u201cProfessional Music\u201d with an emphasis on guitar performance and songwriting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started my band in 2015 after graduating from Berklee,\u201d said Stillman, whose honors include making it to \u201cFinal Eight\u201d of the 35th Annual International Blues Challenge in Memphis Tennessee.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy band has been primarily a trio but at the Blues Challenge, I made it to the finals with the addition of a harmonica player in the group.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy bass player Colin Beatty, who is also from Williamsport, has been with me the whole time. We\u2019ve had different drummers come in-and-out. Right now, our drummer is Ray Hangen from Buffalo, New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the trio, we play mostly blues and American rock. There also is a littler mix of R&B in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stillman\u2019s first recording effort was a self-produced five-track EP called, \u201cThe Grind.\u201d It was released in June 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy second EP \u2013 \u2018Flying High\u2019 — came out in October 2020,\u201d said Stillman. \u201cI made it with The Nighthawks as my band \u2013 just me and the Nighthawks. We recorded it in a day-and-a-half at Temperamental Recordings, a studio in Geneseo, New York. We cut 13 songs and seven were used on the EP.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m working on my first full-length right now. I\u2019m not sure where I\u2019ll record it \u2013 maybe in Austin. I hope to release it in the fall of 2021.\u201d<\/p>\n

Video link for Gabe Stillman — https:\/\/youtu.be\/QGIJgb51Kw8<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The show at Sellersville on February 12, which will also be available via Livestream, will start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10 for live audience and for Livestream.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Tony Sands<\/p><\/div>\n

The Sellersville Theater is also offering a great option for a romantic Valentine\u2019s Day event. The matinee show features Tony Sands in \u201cSinatra the Musical.\u201d Sinatra\u2019s best loved songs are performed in this sensational storytelling musical.<\/p>\n

Sands was raised in South Philadelphia and, if you\u2019re over 50 and are from South Philly, there are two constants in your childhood \u2013 your mother or grandmother spending most of Sunday making \u201cgravy\u201d for the family dinner later that day and listening to the music of Frank Sinatra.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m from South Philly,\u201d said Sands, during a phone interview Monday evening while on tour in Florida.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up in an Italian neighborhood \u2013 19th and Hicks. When I was a kid, I was listening to my parents play their Frank Sinatra albums all the time \u2013 Sinatra and Tony Bennett. That\u2019s what I was hearing at a young age.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was also listening to the Beach Boys, Motown, the Four Seasons. I couldn\u2019t let my friends in the neighborhood know I was listening to Sinatra.\u201d<\/p>\n

No matter who was on top of the pop charts, Sinatra was always on top of Sands\u2019 playlist.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started listening to Frank more and more,\u201d said Sands, who now splits his time between the Delaware beach area and Florida.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was about 11 when I started singing his songs. Then I sang in piano bars and nightclubs in my mid-20s and really loved the Sinatra songbook.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went from piano bars to restaurants and eventually to casinos. I played the Tropicana in Atlantic City five days a week for three years from 2006-2009.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first started performing years ago, I was in the antiques business. After a while, I realized I had to go into my entertainment job full-time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sands still vividly remembers the first time he heard Sinatra perform in person.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was in 1969 and I had taken a date to see him perform at the old Latin Casino near Cherry Hill, New Jersey,\u201d said Sands. \u201cThat was a fantastic club. The big guys used to play there before the casinos came to Atlantic City. On the night I went, Dean Martin walked onto the stage to join Frank about10 minutes into the show. It was a great show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, Sands is doing his part to keep Sinatra\u2019s music alive. In addition to the Tropicana, Sands has performed at prestigious venues such as The Harvard Club, Zanzibar Blue Jazz Club, The Ritz Carlton Hotel, The Breakers Hotel, Tango Lounge and Harrah\u2019s.
\nHis latest production \u2013 which he will perform at the Sellersville Theater on Valentine\u2019s Day — is \u201cSinatra \u2013 The Musical,\u201d a musical journey about the life and times of Frank Sinatra.<\/p>\n

Originally called \u201cIt Was A Very Good Year,\u201d the show, which was written and produced by Sands, begins with the early days of Tommy Dorsey and ends in the bright lights of New York City.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been working on this musical for the last six or seven years,\u201d said Sands. \u201cIt took me about three-and-a-half years to put the finished product together. There was a lot of production work \u2013 a lot of editing. It\u2019s not just me onstage doing Sinatra\u2019s music. We tell a narrated story with multimedia projections.\u201d
\nVideo link for Tony Sands — https:\/\/youtu.be\/JZ-mZbo3QwI<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The show at Sellersville on February 14, which will also be available via Livestream, will start at 4 p.m. Tickets are $33 for live audience and for Livestream.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Michael Borowski<\/p><\/div>\n

On February 2, Michael Borowski was scheduled to make his solo debut at the Sellersville Theater as the featured act of the theater\u2019s Soundbooth Sessions.<\/p>\n

Prior to the date, Borkowski said, \u201cI played at Sellersville many times before this \u2013 first with the Dirk Quinn Band and then several times with Splintered Sunlight. But I\u2019ve never done a solo show there so I\u2019m really excited about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

February 2 came and went and Borowski\u2019s solo debut still had not happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, the darn show was moved to February 16 — thanks to the snow,\u201d said Borowski.<\/p>\n

There is another threatening forecast for Sellersville for February 16, Chance of precipitation is 80 per cent with snow and ice accumulating 3-5 inches. Hopefully, the forecast will change by early next week and not impact the show for the talented pianist who now lives in Hatfield, \u00a0about 15 minutes south of the theater.<\/p>\n

As the son of a highly respected\u00a0piano teacher, Cindy Borowski-Burns, Borowski\u2019s piano journey began when he was just four years old. While growing up, his musical interests were primarily classical composers such as Ludwig von Beethoven, Claude Debussy, Aaron Copland and West Chester\u2019s world-acclaimed composer Samuel Barber. These influences remain with his music today.<\/p>\n

When Borowski was 10 years old, his mother took him to see George Winston at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia. That concert inspired him to start composing his own music and improvise daily at the piano. He learned Winston\u2019s full album, \u201cDecember,\u201d by ear and performed it regularly.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeorge Winston was one of my major influences,\u201d said Borowski, during a phone interview Monday evening from his home in Montgomery County.<\/p>\n

\u201cI play a wide variety of music in my solo show,\u201d said Borowski. \u201cI\u2019ll play songs by Bruce Hornsby, the Grateful Dead and Billy Joel along with some classical stuff. I\u2019ll definitely do a lot of songs from my new album.\u201d<\/p>\n

Borowski\u2019s new album, \u201cPeace Valley,\u201d is also his debut album as a solo performer. In 2020, Borowski caught the attention of Will Ackerman, founder of Windham Hill Records founder and Grammy-winning producer. Ackerman\u2019s work influenced Borowski\u2019s music from a very early age.<\/p>\n

You can hear Borowski\u2019s show on February 16 online via the Sellersville Theater\u2019s Soundbooth Sessions on Facebook Live.<\/p>\n

Borowski also can be heard twice a week on other Facebook sessions — every Sunday at 10 a.m. live from St. Matthew\u2019s Church in Chester Springs and every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 9 a.m. when he presents his \u201cPure Piano Hour\u201d on his own Facebook page.<\/p>\n

Video link for Michael Borowski live from St. Matthew\u2019s Church — https:\/\/youtu.be\/tlPE_8_5NsI<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tickets for the Soundbooth Sessions show, which starts at 8 p.m. on February 16, are $10 \u2013 in person or via Livestream.<\/p>\n

Other shows this month at the Sellersville Theater are Ben Arnold & Band on February 13, AM Radio on February 19 and 20, Adam Monaco on February 23, and King Solomon Hicks on February 26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Denny Dyroff, Entertainment Editor, The Times\u00a0 The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the area entertainment scene into a horrible situation. The almost non-existent availability of live shows in Philadelphia featuring national acts is no laughing matter. But shows that are on the list of coming attractions are laughing matters \u2013 because they are shows at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7529],"tags":[6518,12717,12716,12681,12718],"class_list":["post-36570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-d-arts-entertainment","tag-featured","tag-gabe-stillman","tag-matthew-broussard","tag-michael-borowski","tag-tony-sands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36570"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36571,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36570\/revisions\/36571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}