Wichita Falls is a Comedy Town
The first Liquid Laughs event was a hilarious night of standup comedy
The first ever Liquid Laughs standup comedy event in Wichita Falls was a roaring success, and it was a thrill to see a live and local event go off with such enthusiasm, from the comics and the crowd.
Wichita Falls’ own standup comedian Mitch Burrow is back from his time in Hollywood (interrupted by the pandemic) and dedicated to the idea of bringing some attention to standup comedy at the local scale. He succeeded in fabulous and entertaining fashion with Liquid Laughs.
Mitch and his crew planned for everything, with food provided by the food truck outside (and others parked nearby), and an open bar (with his wife, Leigh, on mixology). The Venue on 8th was actually well-suited for standup comedy, with couches and booths for VIP guests and long, communal tables conducive to socializing for general admission ticketholders.
Singer/Songwriter Brendan Bell — Wichita Red — opened the show and provided great background music as guests filtered-in and took their seats. I’ll definitely be making a point of checking out a Wichita Red show in the future.
Comedian Michael McCarley was the host and first comedian of the night. I talked to him a little before he went on and he seemed a bit nervous. I got the impression he was being a little hard on his own performance after he finished his first set, too, but I thought he did fine, and I’ve seen him before. He is a very funny young man.
Spenser O’Neill was the second comedian on the bill (Spenser and host Michael share a podcast called The Every Theme Podcast). Spenser is a big funny dude, well over six feet, and he likes to poke at his crowd from above, touching on controversial topics with comedic skill that tiptoes the line between laughs and shocked exclamations. I thought his comedy was smart and very funny.
The laughs really got rollicking when Dylan Sullivan took the stage, partly because, in addition to being hilarious, Dylan just seems so damn happy to be doing comedy when he’s onstage. He beams with a wide grin and looks totally comfortable in the spotlight.
Dylan’s set on this night was heavy on audience interaction and provided plenty of laughs. He picked out a couple that had been married for 14 years, and another that had been married for 48 years, and rode that contradiction to gut-busting laughs, telling the younger of the two couples “You don’t know sh*t!”
I think some tears of laughter might have been shed in the near-capacity crowd.
If the night had ended there, Liquid Laughs would have been just fine and worth the price of admission, but the feature entertainer of the night was still to come.
Headliner, veteran, and organizer of the event Mitch Burrow took the stage under a set of lights that he complained were very hot and made him sweat, but then he noticed they were LED… “They don’t even give off heat!” He joked his sweating was just from standing and talking at the same time.
Mitch is a comfortable, relatable presence onstage and his set can range from scandalous observations on our current state of affairs to heartwarming stories about his toddler. He kept the audience in stitches at Liquid Laughs.
At the end of the show, Mitch announced that he’s going to try to stage Liquid Laughs every month in Wichita Falls. Let’s hope that succeeds, because the first Liquid Laughs was an inarguable success, where nobody walked away offended, a good time was had by all, and everyone was out of there by 10:00 PM, ready to head home, or wander off to their next destination downtown. Make sure you sign up for a free subscription because theFUSE will keep you updated on the next event.
Wichita Falls is a comedy town. Let’s keep it that way.
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All photos by the author, © FallstownFUSE.com
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Last night was an absolute blast at the comedy show! It was a fun departure from our usual routine, and I'm genuinely hopeful that it evolves into a date night tradition. There's truly nothing quite like laughing until my upper lip gets stuck to my teeth. 😂