jim gaffigan tour review

Review: Midwestern Sensibilities Drive Jim Gaffigan’s The Fun Tour

• March 8, 2022
• Comedy , Review , Stages , Video

Full disclosure: I listen to standup to help me sleep. During these dystopian times, when I’m frequently unable to catch some ZZZs, I’ll play a comedy special on the bedroom TV. I close my eyes but can still hear the routine until I hopefully slide into slumber. It reminds me of dozing off while my parents talked in the other room, a bit of companionship and security, like falling safely asleep in the back of the Impala while Dad drove home from Grandma’s. My favorite soothing sleep aid is Jim Gaffigan, and he’s unknowingly rocked me to sleep with his comedy specials, including Beyond the Pale, King Baby, Mr. Universe, Obsessed, Cinco, The Pale Tourist, Quality Time and Noble Ape .

But there was no napping when Gaffigan played a three-show, nearly sold-out run of his new piece The Fun Tour  at the Chicago Theatre last weekend. Frequent opening act Ted Alexandro warmed up the lively, appreciative Friday night crowd, and shared that he had indeed achieved his “quarantine 15” pounds. To lose that weight, he buys bagged salad at the store, which he suggests that the cashier throw directly into the trash after purchase, to save him the trouble of doing the same at home a few days later. He also talked about being a new dad with a younger wife, and notes that, as an aging guy, he now pees sitting down, sometimes wakes up injured, and has increased the font size on his phone.

Gaffigan then took to the stage for his hour-long set. Perambulating around the empty stage wearing a black sweatshirt, brown pants and white sneakers, the self-professed super-pale guy (as noted in some of his show titles), he confessed that he had polished off a Lou Malnati’s pizza the night before. Gaffigan was born in the Chicagoland area, and grew up in Indiana, so knows his pizza as well as how to integrate local delicacies and regional knowledge into most of his sets. He shared some bathroom antics in this show, from stories about Montezuma’s revenge to musings about why the toilet is also called “the loo … perhaps a reference to Lou Malnati’s?”

Before COVID and the tyranny of The Former Guy, Gaffigan was mostly, famously, apolitical, but now, due to the aforementioned dystopia, some liberal opinions are (gratefully) creeping into his act, and the audience welcomed his jibes at antivaxxers—“we all used to know one.” He and his wife Jeannie, co-writer and co-producer of his shows (whom he calls a “Shiite Catholic”), also shared religious-inspired material about the plagues that are currently visiting our planet, and he riffed about how the frog plague is the most pathetic plague. (Ed. Note: it is.)

He owns up to being “white trash,” admitting that he had a dirty beer can collection at age nine, and refers to Indiana as merely “the road from Chicago to Michigan.” But now he’s fancier, sharing that he “just took out a reverse mortgage to afford a new phone.” He echoes some previous material about carting his five young kids around the world, and updates viewers on Jeannie’s new swallowing disorder following her life-threatening brain surgery a few years back. He talked about merch tables at funerals, how golf trips might make men gay, and the perennial conundrum as to why bikers ride motorcycles and cyclists ride bikes.

Gaffigan is deeply funny and insightful, yet his charm emanates from his calm, reflective and world-weary everyman take on the everyday: family foibles, mass culture, and now, a wee bit more politics. Keep talking, Jim. Thank you and good night.

Along with his wife and kids, Gaffigan added a “Let’s Get Cookin’” series of videos to his YouTube channel during quarantine. His hourlong pandemic special Comedy Monster is currently running on Netflix , and his live, in-person The Fun Tour continues around the US throughout 2022 (Hot Pockets not included).

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Karin McKie

Karin McKie is a Chicago freelance writer, cultural factotum and activism concierge. She jams econo.

Jim Gaffigan’s comedy doesn’t hide his Catholic faith. It also doesn’t weaponize it.

Six minutes into his latest stand-up comedy special, “Dark Pale,” Jim Gaffigan, having just transported his audience into the interior of a commercial aircraft in its final moments as it hurtles to the earth, punctuates the bit with the warning/promise: “Is that too dark? It’s going to get worse.”

Indeed, the aptly titled, “Dark Pale,” currently streaming on Amazon Prime , presents a decidedly darker, dirtier Gaffigan. This persona is not completely divorced from the innocuous, albeit hilarious, dad/schlub character that rose to fame in large part due to his family-friendly musings on American culinary phenomena like Popeye’s fried chicken, Hot Pockets and Cinnabon. Indeed, Gaffigan’s trademark musings on the unending and absurd manifestations of Americans’ unquenchable need to consume any and all things permeate his new hour-long special.

“Dark Pale,” released on July 25, anticipated Gaffigan’s series of live shows, titled the “ Barely Alive ” tour, that debuted on Aug. 25 in Las Vegas. The tour includes several shows with his fellow “clean and light” comedian Jerry Seinfeld. Gaffigan’s co-headlining with the iconic Seinfeld speaks to his growing reputation as one of the fundamental voices of American humor in this century. It also calls forth a question as to what Gaffigan’s prominence says about contemporary American culture.

Gaffigan’s aforementioned persona, overt Catholicism and whiter-than-white appearance serve as a diversionary tactic to the larger thematic agenda of his comedy. Gaffigan serves as a unifying figure between white, working-class conservative Christians, whom he cosmetically resembles, and the “liberal elite” secular community, whose point of view continually seeps in as he comically takes on anti-vaxxers and global warming deniers. Somehow, in this day and age of ideological polarization, Gaffigan has managed to avoid either pandering to or alienating either audience.

The special includes Gaffigan’s trademark musings on Americans’ unquenchable need to consume any and all things. 

It could be argued that Gaffigan’s schtick is so innocuous as to prove unthreatening to either side of the ideological or political spectrum. Yet that sells his comedy short, particularly as it relates to “Dark Pale.” This is a decidedly a post-Covid spectacle, as throughout he acknowledges the way American culture has changed in the wake of the pandemic. And this is where his stage persona offers him an assist, as he can diffuse the tension of any given hot topic through his own All-American absurdity, which in turn lays bare the absurd elements of both poles’ stances.

At the beginning of his set (recorded live in the less than politically neutral confines of Tampa, Fla.), Gaffigan comes onstage wearing that all-purpose totem of the pandemic’s ideological warfare, the face mask. After implying he was going to take the mask off, he simulates a striptease. When he finally removes the mask, he states matter-of-factly: “The only reason I was wearing this is because I have Covid,” whereupon he proceeds to cough all over the front rows of the audience. This whole sequence speaks to the absurd behavior of both sides of the ideological spectrum during the pandemic in terms of the enforcement and the dissent against enforcement of mask wearing, as well as the public behavior it incited .

He can diffuse the tension of any given hot topic through his own All-American absurdity.

Gaffigan then goes into a long segment on the question of mortality, which was brought to the forefront of popular discourse during the pandemic. That death and dying was constantly on everyone’s mind was due in no small part to TV news, which he says, “for two years was like the death lottery. We sat at home watching it like it was Powerball.”

Perhaps his strongest bit from this segment comes from his description of his own lived experience as a Catholic. He says, “At Catholic funerals you’re supposed to kneel next to the casket and say a prayer. That prayer goes like this: One Mississippi. Two Mississippi. (He looks at his watch) That’s got to be long enough.” Only you, dear reader, know how funny, callous and/or accurate you find that joke, but judging by the reception of his audience in Tampa, it seems to be a shared experience by many people of faith.

TV news during the pandemic 'was like the death lottery. We sat at home watching it like it was Powerball.'

After Gaffigan’s inquiry into the murky caverns of human mortality, he makes an unexpected and, as it turns out, unnecessary digression into the realm of toilet humor. The less said about it the better. It proves to be the most feeble moment of an otherwise exceptionally well-constructed comedic set. Perhaps Gaffigan felt his foray into the (for him) uncharted territory of death and dying comedy needed to be buffered by adolescent jokes about Montezuma’s revenge. Whatever the case, it brings the set’s comedic momentum to a screeching halt and is not at all helped by his own calling out of his own poor taste, which only further underlines the fact that he should have known better. Fortunately for Gaffigan and the audience, the last half of “Dark Pale” brings him back to his comedic sweet spots: consumerism, religion and family. He goes on a lengthy tangent on all things Starbucks, which he claims is not only a coffee shop but also “an upscale unemployment office.” This is followed by an analysis of the biblical nature of the fires, floods and pandemics of recent years from the perspective of an increasingly frustrated deity. He then goes into one of the mainstays of his comedy, his children: “Sometimes when people find out I have five kids, they think I’m good at parenting. Which is kind of like assuming that people with lots of cats are not crazy.” He calls Starbucks 'an upscale unemployment office.'

Gaffigan, like Seinfeld, is at his best when deconstructing the mundanity and minutiae of everyday American life. Unlike John Mulaney , that other (nominally) Catholic stand-up comic, Gaffigan never presents as the smartest guy in the room. Mulaney’s stand-up specials are elaborately constructed spectacles of wit and creativity which frequently leave audience members shaking their heads at the intelligence and creativity of such a masterful comedic technician. Gaffigan’s stand-up comes from a different place. He occupies the lower strata of the intellectual spectrum and seems to revel in that, as he ambles and stumbles from joke to joke, segment to segment.

But do not be deceived; Jim Gaffigan’s comedy is just as artful and constructed in its way as Mulaney’s. However, his agenda is not about being smarter and funnier than the audience, but rather about being one with the audience. Gaffigan actually is the smartest guy in the room; but that can be alienating to some, and he knows it. His comedic affinity is for bringing people together in a shared understanding of the absurdity of contemporary American culture.

Gaffigan is not about being the smarter than the audience, but about being one with the audience.

Gaffigan does not hide his faith, nor does he weaponize it. He presents himself as a flawed, albeit rational Christian in a society and media landscape that seem uninterested in putting sane, sensible Christians in the foreground. Gaffigan’s comedic stylings are not for everyone. But at the same time, in his low-status, schlubby take on the American experience, there is, in fact, something for everyone. [In his new special, John Mulaney is a modern day Prodigal Son with a message about mercy]

Jake Martin, S.J., is an assistant professor of film studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He received his Ph.D. in film studies from Trinity College, Dublin and is the author of What’s So Funny About Faith: A Memoir From the Intersection of Hilarious and Holy .

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Jim Gaffigan Reviews

• Tour Dates Live

Total Ratings:

Too high on the list. You guys equate success to funny? The fact that Patrice aint even close up here is a good contrast

He is a bit repetitive on the material section (and the delivery section, come to think of it, but I find his whole ‘commentary on his own show’ thing charming, so I am ignoring this fact), but still manages to be funny. His newer special, Mr. Universe, branches out into more topics than food and is a bit of a step up from Beyond the Pale and King Baby- though I do love those two. Very funny and starting to branch out a bit, which is always a good thing. Would recommend.

One of the few family-friendly comics who isn’t totally lame! Lots of jokes about mundane topics like food, exercise, shopping, and holidays.

Jim Gaffigan was the first person I met when I moved to LA. I drove out to the Santa Monica pier and was walking along the beach when he tryed to get me to take a crappy broken kite off his hands while out with his family. He’s exactly the same on the street as on stage… funny and super quirky.

http://aubreydoesthings.blogspot.com/

Great Comic

Jim Gaffigan’s Beyond the Pale.

Jim Gaffigan is one of the best working comedians working today. He continually sells out shows and arenas around the country, and for good reason. He’s witty, he’s clean, he’s likable, and he’s downright funny, and Beyond the Pale is Gaffigan’s best work to date.

“Oh he’s a pale fella…”

He starts off the cd in his trademark “asides” voice, where he imitates a hypothetical audience members thoughts. He does this for quite a while (his actual voice doesn’t come in until 1:15 into the cd), and every comment he makes adds to the last, even to the point where he’s making fun of the fact that he hasn’t said anything of actual value yet. Throughout the cd (as is the case in all his acts), he continues to add his asides where appropriate. It’s a brilliant tool that provides a perfect segue into his next bit, no matter what it is. Yet even though it works best as a transition, he also uses it excellently as both filler and punchline in his set. He even expresses any fake hostility in the audience by mocking anything even slightly offensive he says (“Hey I like bologna…”), which puts any actual offense they take at ease. Though don’t be confused, there is nothing offensive in this album, unless you are particularly touchy about religion.

Now on to the bulk of the cd, FOOD! Gaffigan is probably the leader in jokes about food. Fourteen tracks are specifically dedicated to food related topics. The butt of most of his food jokes relates is the American eating habit. Among his targets are the simplicity of fast food orders, obsessions with desserts, and fake vegetarians. These tracks will keep you rolling, because they are topics that we are so familiar with, yet we often completely overlook the absurdity of them. It is in these tracks that you will find one of his bits that’s almost become his trademark bit, Hot Pockets! A very catchy joke because he makes fun of how terrible hot pockets are, and continually pokes fun at their oh-so-simple slogan. But because this is his most recognizable joke, I’d have to say it’s probably also his most overrated. Don’t get me wrong, the joke is funny, but I wouldn’t even put it in the top 10 tracks on this cd, which shows how much comic gold there is to find here.

While he takes a brief break from food, he goes on to lovingly criticize American holiday traditions. Even when some of the subjects are things many of us have already noticed and wondered (why chocolate eggs on Easter?), he puts enough spin on them to make them seem more ridiculous than we initially thought.

more food jokes more food jokes more food jokes

And now we’re getting towards the end of the cd, where his primary topic is religion (oh no, the R-word!). Now, as I practicing Catholic, there are times where I take offense to a comedian’s poking of my faith, but this is not the case with Gaffigan. His jokes center around Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and Catholicism itself, yet he does so in a way that is neither mean-spirited, nor derogatory. And not only are they benign, they’re funny! He recreates biblical scenes that aren’t in the bible(Mary telling Joseph that she’s pregnant), and adds a few funny things that transpose today’s culture to Jesus’ (what do you get the Messiah as a gift?). Its the closest he gets to shock value in his set, but manages to steer far away from that course.

Overall, I’d recommend this cd to absolutely everybody. What more can I say? Jim Gaffigan is a funny guy who knows how to keep an audience happy

best tracks: Presents, Eating vegetarian, Eat Like an American, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph worst track: Spray Cheese(also the shortest bit), The Case Against Cinnabons,

Overall rating: 10/10

Idiosynchratic and irritating delivery of material that is occasionally amusing, but more often just silly.

Jim doesn’t even have to be telling a joke to make me laugh. His myspace blogs announcing tour dates make me laugh. He really inspires me as a writer to always strive to be smarter, quicker, and funnier.

Jim also subscribed to my Myspace blog. Sometimes I like to pretend that he reads it.

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Jim Gaffigan talks Nashville, his struggle with hot chicken and insulting marching bands

Jim Gaffigan is calling Nashville from Costa Rica — not the first place you expect to find a stand-up comedian who famously jokes about his pale complexion and propensity for getting severe sunburns.

But as it turns out, traveling close to the equator is actually a strategic move for the father of five. He had a gig in Mexico City during spring break for several of his kids, and turned the trip into a tropical family vacation. 

The journey continues next week, when Gaffigan will have a very special opening act for his show at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena on March 30.

During our conversation — which he joked would add roughly $80 to his hotel bill — we talked about touring with his kids, an uncharacteristically controversial joke from his last Netflix special, his takeaway from presenting at the CMA Awards, and his love/hate relationship with hot chicken (who can't relate?)

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'This fat guy is gonna want this food'

The bit that put Gaffigan on the map some 20-plus years ago was an extended riff on Hot Pockets, and food has remained a constant in his career. In fact, when KFC was using a revolving door of comedians to play Colonel Sanders on TV, his turn involved promoting the franchise's new "Nashville Hot" variety.

A self-made poster for his Nashville show boldly proclaimed that all of the city's hot chicken was still "not enough," and that's dangerous talk when you're dealing with seriously high spice levels. 

"I love hot chicken, but I'm somebody who can't pace themselves. So later that night, you know, the 'bill comes due' for the hot chicken. But I'm still that guy that if I'm in Nashville, I'm going to get hot chicken. The question is, 'Before or after the show?' The smart thing would be to do it after the show. But given that the promoters are Outback (Concerts), and they're from Nashville, I think they're probably gonna give me some hot chicken (before). I did a show in Lafayette, Louisiana, and they brought crawfish. They're just like, 'Whatever the local specialties are, this fat guy is gonna want this food.' That's my equivalent of touring with an entourage, it's the food."

Concert review: Morgan Wallen courts superstardom with Nashville run but shows potential for more

His new opening act

Gaffigan's Bridgestone Arena date falls right in the middle of weeklong jaunt he's calling "3 Men and a Bus." He'll be traveling with friend and fellow standup Todd Glass, as well as his 16-year-old son Jack, who'll be on his spring break next week. Jack has introduced his dad on stages from Alaska to Florida, but it sounds like he'll be even more involved at these shows.

"Jack is really funny, and I want to just force him to do it so that he has some experience," Gaffigan says. "I come from a small town, and I didn't really have an opportunity to discover performing until I was like, 25."

A snark-free take on the CMAs

Gaffigan was last on stage at Bridgestone Arena in 2019 — as an unlikely presenter at the CMA Awards. (He and Blanco Brown gave the New Artist of the Year prize to Ashley McBryde). The female-centric show was one of the best CMAs in years, and Gaffigan walked away with a sincere respect for the Music Row world. 

"I was blown away by the whole experience," he says. 

"The opening number of that year had probably 12 of the best, biggest female stars in country music. Dolly Parton was there, Kacey Musgraves and just down the line, and there was no real hierarchy. There really is this sense in country music that you can support your fellow artists. And that's not to say that people don't support each other in other aspects of the entertainment industry, but it's kind of woven into country music, and it's really reflected."

That experience stood in stark contrast to the Grammy Awards, where Gaffigan presented two months later.

"It felt like a day in high school. The hierarchy was so clearly defined. And as a comedian, I'm grateful to even be at Grammys, but I feel like in country music, people check on their ego when they get together."

Courting controversy...with marching bands?

Gaffigan works clean, and generally steers clear of politics on stage. It was surprising, then, that a portion of his latest Netflix special ruffled a few feathers — more specifically, plumes sticking out of hats. 

"A marching band can take a song – it’s impressive, really – any song, and ruin it," he jokes in 2021's "Comedy Monster."

“They’re always rehearsing. It’s amazing how much effort goes into creating something that no one really likes…"

His distaste for marching bands likely stems from his childhood in Chesterton, Indiana, where the local high school's Trojan Guard band won the national championship in 1981.

"The weird thing is, I feel like people in marching band generally got it," Gaffigan tells The Tennessean. "But there were some angry people (laughs)."

"I'm not an 'Us and them' kind of comedian, like, 'Those idiots over there,' which some comedians do.  But you’d be amazed about what people will be upset about. I always imagine, where are they in that situation when they're consuming it? I mean, are they going through a divorce? Are they 70 years old, and think that I'm being disrespectful of this time with my children? You're not going to please everyone. That's for sure."

His next special is planned, but still being written

In October, Gaffigan will tape his next stand-up special in Tampa, Fla. Which of the 50 streaming services will carry it? "I think the expectation is Netflix," he says. "But you never know."

What material he'll tackle next is also up in the air. He's already done the pandemic:  "Comedy Monster" had some sharp, gap-bridging material on emerging from lockdown life before Delta and Omicron sent him back in.  

"The pandemic is like a TV show you thought was canceled," he jokes on the special. "And then it got picked up by Netflix.

"Standup is very much self assignment," Gaffigan says. "And so that's the assignment that I've given myself, which is great, because otherwise I would just eat and watch TV. And I really do love coming up with new material, which is always a terrifying thing. It's a parallel to even performing stand up. It's like, 'Why put yourself in this position where you can humiliate yourself?' But the reward is so gratifying. Fear is a motivator. That's kind of my parenting style, too."

If you go: Jim Gaffigan performs at Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday, March 30. The show starts at 7 p.m., and tickets start at $34.65.

Jim Gaffigan’s The Pale Tourist is a pleasant trip

Jim Gaffigan may be one of the least controversial comedians of our time. A family man and a lover of food, his comedy rarely stumbles into blue or even political territory. His best jokes rely on simply making as many people laugh as possible. The philosophy of “funny is funny” serves him well in The Pale Tourist , his latest two-part special for Amazon.

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One special takes place in Canada, the other in Spain, and in both Gaffigan answers the question: “What if the five minutes of city-specific material at the top of every comedy show was actually the entire show?” It’s possible that no one was asking that question, but nonetheless it’s a pleasant experiment. Throughout his international tour, Gaffigan spent extra time taking in the sights, sounds, people, and, of course, food of each country he was in, using that intel to create a completely new hour of material specifically tailored to that country’s audience. It may sound a little gimmicky, but it’s an admirable challenge for a stand-up who’s been in the game for three decades and a welcome break from jokes about America’s current moment—though Gaffigan can’t help but throw in a few jabs at his own country and its obnoxious residents.

The trickiest thing about this approach is avoiding the “ugly American tourist” trap. On the surface, the optics of a white, American man coming into say, Spain, to tell jokes about Spanish culture aren’t great. But Gaffigan proves he’s done his homework and isn’t there to skewer anyone (well, maybe a few Americans along the way); he’s using this method to connect with people in the cities he visits. And for the times when he’s worried he may have crossed a line, he employs a tried-and-true Gaffigan bit: the high-pitched, whisper voice of the audience as an aside. “This guy’s a jerk,” he’ll say with a side-eye. “A jerk who’s done research.”

Part one takes place in Canada, arguably an easier leap to make from U.S. audiences, and all the funnier for it. He hits on some expected targets like Canadians’ politeness, hockey, and poutine, the last of which, though, is especially on brand for Jim Gaffigan: “What if we covered it in everything that causes heart disease? Let’s do it, we have free healthcare.” But as the set goes on and Gaffigan gets more comfortable knowing he has the audience on his side, he dives into hyper-specific references. Because of the research he’s done, the jokes not only hit hard in the room, but also serve as entertaining lessons about lesser-known aspects of Canadian culture for the at-home audience.

Part two in Spain is a little slower out the gate. The cultural divide is wider, and Gaffigan seems to be making that larger leap a little more trepidatiously with a quieter, more reserved presence on stage. Again, he starts off with some obvious targets—Spanish people’s touchy-feely nature, siestas—using a Spanish accent at times that adds to the discomfort of poking fun at aspects of a different culture. This is the only time things feel borderline inappropriate, and it’s as if Gaffigan knows he’s treading potentially dangerous waters, waters he certainly isn’t used to. But with encouragement and laughter from the crowd, he grows in confidence as he moves on to the more nuanced jokes and observations about specific cities, celebrations, and, yes, cuisines in the country.

The true marvel is that there is no overlap in either set. That might sound obvious based on the premise, but even the format feels completely new each time, not as if there was some sort of Mad Lib template into which Gaffigan simply punched new, nation-specific words. Even the material about his general experiences with traveling or jokes about his family feel fresh each time. It makes you wonder how many other countries he tried this approach in—even if the sets weren’t as successful as the two that made it into the special, it’s an impressive feat to even attempt to write that much new material about topics you’re not familiar with, an exercise that can only make Gaffigan a better comic.

The Pale Tourist is not the most raucous or laugh-out-loud comedy special from Gaffigan. But thanks to his ever-present charm, friendly approach, and endless relatability, the feel-good pair of specials reminds us that the funniest jokes are the universal jokes. Sure, the sets specifically relate to the countries he’s in, but more than geography, they speak to the human experience and all relate back to the core of any Jim Gaffigan act: jokes about family, food, and the absurdity of humanity.

No laughing matter: You can see Jim Gaffigan’s ‘Barely Alive Tour’ in Buffalo this month

• Updated: Feb. 01, 2024, 9:19 a.m. |
• Published: Feb. 01, 2024, 9:18 a.m.

Comedian Jim Gaffigan will perform five shows, Feb. 8-10, 2024, at Shea's Performing Arts Center in Buffalo, New York. He is seen here at the Fox Theatre in Detroit in 2022. (Photo by Andrew Potter | 313Presents)

• Deb Kiner | [email protected]

Comedian Jim Gaffigan will be in Buffalo, New York, with his “Barely Alive Tour” Feb. 8-10, 2024.

The show will feature “all new material.”

Gaffigan has been nominated seven times for a Grammy Award and has won three Emmys. He is a best-selling author, recording artist and actor.

Shows are at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 8; 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 9; and 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 10 at Shea’s Performing Arts Center.

You can find tickets here - Stubhub , Vivid Seats and SeatGeek . Prices start around $35.

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Jim gaffigan: barely alive tour.

Diane and I drove to the Sheas’s Performing Arts Theatre at 5:00 P.M. and joined 2000+ Jim Gaffigan fans for Gaffigan’s Barely Alive Tour. Gaffigan had five performances in Buffalo–including an 8:00 P.M. show after our 5:00 P.M. show–and all of them sold out. Clearly, Western NY is Jim Gaffigan Country.

For those of you who watched Gaffigan’s 2023 Dark Pale comedy “Special” on AMAZON Prime Video (you can read my review here ), some of those routines were recycled on the Barely Alive Tour stand-up comedy.

Gaffigan repeated his jokes about Pat Sajak of Wheel of Fortune and told the story of his family getting a dog…despite his wife’s allergies to dogs. Gaffigan also explained his weight loss. He’s on Mounjaro (“Way better than Ozempic!”). However, people come up to Gaffigan’s wife asking, “Does Jim have cancer? He’s lost so much weight!”

Ted Alexandro, a comic who told us that he’s been doing stand-up for 30 years, 6 of those as the opening act for Jim Gaffigan, had the audience laughing for about 25 minutes. Most of his jokes concerned the life-style of being a 60 year-old comic married to woman who does psychic readings. They also have two toddlers.

Alexandro, followed by Gaffigan, delivered about 90 minutes of humor to an appreciative audience. Are you a Jim Gaffigan fan? GRADE: B

12 thoughts on “ Jim Gaffigan: Barely Alive Tour ”

So, the live standup was a lot better than his Amazon Prime show? I like him well enough, but his Wal-Mart ads are pretty lame.

Fred, Diane and I liked Gaffigan’s live standup act better than his AMAZON Prime Video show. The AMAZON show had a long, rambling story about a hot air balloon that wasn’t funny and seemed pointless.

I like his tv specials—although I didn’t see the Amazon Prime show which, iirc, was universally panned—and I’ve never seen him live (the twins went to one of his shows a couple of years ago and loved it). Humor can be a very subjective thing, dependent on so many elements, but Gaffigan (in 60-minutes doses) usually makes me laugh.

Deb, Diane and I have gone to standup performances with opening acts…and none at all. When we saw Jerry Seinfeld, he just walked out on stage and had us laughing for 70 minutes.

Yes, big Jim Gaffigan fan. I bought and read his book, DAD IS FAT. I didn’t think hsi last special was quite as good as previous ones (B is about right), but I’d watch any new one he did.

Over the years we have gone to see a number of comics live, though not Gaffigan – Robert Klein, Rodney Dangerfield (both of them more than once), Steve Martin (after “King Tut” – also twice), Lewis Black, Judy Gold (not strictly a stand up routine, but her one woman shows), probably others. Who doesn’t like to laugh? And laughter is good for your health. One of the people who made me laugh the hardest with his outrageous material was the late Robert Schimmel. I literally could not breathe.

Besides “King Tut,” we saw Rodney do “Rappin’ Rodney.” A lot of comics are frustrated singers, and Robert Klein always ended his set with a couple of songs. After all, he started as a singer with the Teen Tones, and he claims they lost on Ted Mack’s Amateur Hour to a one-armed accordionist.

We’ve also seen:

Elayne Boosler – free concert. She was funny.

Jackie Mason at the height of his Jewish shtick before he went totally Trumpster. He was hilarious.

Lewis Black was still doing his Starbucks stuff then

The first time we saw Steve Martin was ca. 1978 at what was then the Garden State Arts Center in New Jersey. He was doing the “arrow through the head” and “let’s get small” stuff. He was, believe it or not, the opening act for Andy Williams, of all people, and most of the crowd was there to see him. There were a few of us Steve Martin fans scattered through the crowd, some with arrows through their heads, and we made a lot of noise.

Then Andy came out with his backup singers and started doing the theme from Rocky “Gotta Fly Now” – and we and our friends left.

Then “King Tut” came out and Steve sold out Radio City Music Hall. Now who’s out of place?

Jeff, sadly, I’ve seen very few comics live. Diane likes Steve Martin and I like Martin Short so we went to their live event at Shea’s a couple years ago. We saw Jerry Seinfeld live twice. He was great!

The last standup comic I saw was George Carlin circa 1973! Gaffigan’s name is familiar but I’ve never seen him, hermit that I am!

Bob, you need to get out more.

Most of my live comedian shows have happened after I was pulling down enough, after the first few years at TV GUIDE, to be able to budget for this…most often at this point, I’ve seen Jackie Kashian, Maria Bamford, and everyone else is a pretty distant third, though I’ve caught shows with Nikki Glaser, Michelle Billoon, Tig Notaro, Jimmy Pardo and Matt Belknap (the latter, as his co-podcaster, is more comedian-adjacent), Todd Glass, Eddie Pepitone and others. I like both Gaffigan and Alexandro pretty well, but I wouldn’t pay the fee to see them in the kind of place they’d perform, I suspect.

And it’s odd that I managed to forget Jackie’s podcast partner, and definitely a comedian, Laurie Kilmartin. One of the relative few that Alice and I have seen live, as Alice until recently has been Very Much Not a Night Owl (and she’s still not nearly as much of one as I am).

This week’s JACKIE AND LAURIE SHOW: https://maximumfun.org/podcasts/jackie-and-laurie-show/

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Even Jim Gaffigan has a dark side

In his 10th television special, the comedian and actor moves way beyond hot pockets humor.

NEW YORK — On a recent weeknight, Jim Gaffigan arrived at the Gotham Comedy Club to do an unannounced 22-minute set. He had no choice. His latest comedy special (his 10th), “Jim Gaffigan: Dark Pale,” was set to premiere July 25 on Amazon’s Prime Video, and that meant new material would be needed.

“Once that special is released, you really can’t do the same show because people are like, you know, we just saw that on TV,” says his wife, Jeannie Gaffigan, his producer and sometimes writer. So, new gigs are already lined up, including a four-city tour with Jerry Seinfeld.

On this night, Gaffigan, who rides atop virtually every “funniest family-friendly comedians” list , opens with a chunk about his children — he has five, ages 10 to 19 — that doesn’t exactly give off a kids-say-the-darndest-things vibe.

“I am so grateful that I can do stand-up comedy,” Gaffigan starts. “But I do need you to know that my life at home is horrible. It is hell.”

Gaffigan talks about discovering, mid-conversation, that the child he’s speaking to is leaving the room. He grouses about getting called fat and bald for merely suggesting a coat be worn in cold weather. He imagines telling his therapist about his children without mentioning that they are indeed his children.

“I live with these five people,” he says. “They eat all my food, spend all my money, and when I ask them to do anything, they yell at me. Any therapist would be like, ‘You should move out.’”

This is the beauty of Gaffigan, quietly one of the most successful comics of his generation. He is constantly Wiki-typed as the clean comic, as if he’s as bland as a slice of bologna, and yet he is never afraid to venture into the unexpected.

“Clean. I know that term,” Seinfeld says in a phone interview. “I don’t think it means much. I mean, in the comedy world it’s, is this guy funny? Nobody goes, ‘Is he clean?’”

There is also never a sense that, at 57 and decades into his career, Gaffigan is done developing. In his opening bit at the Gotham, for example, he referenced his 13-year-old daughter, Maria. Except that he doesn’t have a 13-year-old daughter named Maria. It’s a small liberty to take, but it offers a window into one shift in Gaffigan’s thinking: how to fit his real family into the family material he’s become so famous for. There was a time when he would welcome a TV crew into the kitchen or conduct an interview with a baby strapped to his chest. Then there was the YouTube show he and Jeannie launched during the pandemic, “Dinner with the Gaffigans.”

“Dinner” was popular and helped raise money for a variety of charities. But it began to make him feel uneasy and, these days, more protective. He mentions getting a call from an adviser.

“And he goes, there’s an opportunity for your family to meet this other family,” Gaffigan says in a recent interview. “They’re kind of like TikTok famous but they want to be YouTube famous. And I’m thinking, ‘Oh, yeah, that sounds good.’”

Then he thought about it some more. What a terrible idea.

“At a certain point, our oldest daughter was like, I just don’t want to be on camera anymore,” adds Jeannie. “We realized, ‘Wait, this is not correct. These aren’t actors. They’re our children.’”

Those children also inspired what remains one of the least Gaffiganian moments in his public life.

Three summers ago, during the Republican National Convention, Gaffigan got so fed up with then-President Donald Trump that he went on a Twitter rant peppered with misspellings and the “F word.” The National Catholic Reporter declared it “the night that broke Jim Gaffigan.” Some commenters told him they were disappointed and would no longer follow him. He had a direct message for one of them. Again, it began with an F.

Three years later, Gaffigan says the rant, in which he called Trump a “traitor,” “con man,” and “thief,” was motivated, in part, by his children.

“I’m living with these teenagers, and what am I going to say to them,” he says. “I know Trump is bad news, but I didn’t want it to interfere with my money?”

The path to comedy

To hear Gaffigan’s brother Joe describe it, there was very little reason to imagine Jim Gaffigan would ever deliver a punchline. Their father, Michael, was a banker and the first in his family to attend college. Growing up in Indiana, Jim played football and agreed he would measure success in getting a job in which he wore a tie. After earning a degree in finance from Georgetown University, he headed to Florida for a job as a litigation consultant.

“He tried to make a go of it,” says Joe, one of five older siblings. “He bought himself a Fiero, but a pale Jim in Tampa is not a good combination. He didn’t have a lot of friends there and realized, this is not going to work.”

In his mid-20s, he also lost his mother, Marcia, to ovarian cancer when she was just 53. That inspired him to try stand-up.

“I kind of essentially did what everyone told me to do,” Gaffigan says. “Like play football. I don’t even like football. But I’ll go out and then study finance. And so the passing of my mother was very much like, ‘Wait a minute. Hold on. What is all this? This isn’t fair.’”

He moved to New York and, after a short time at an advertising agency, was laid off. He decided to focus on comedy.

“I really thought, okay, I can do this; get 10 or 15 minutes and then maybe I’ll become a writer on ‘Letterman,’” he says.

In 2003, he and Jeannie got married. She was an actress who had already been working with him, starting when he needed help producing a comedy CD, “Luigi’s Doghouse.” They would go on to collaborate on his specials and “The Jim Gaffigan Show” on TV Land.

What changed everything was “Hot Pockets,” a riff on the microwaveable turnovers that are considered a staple of the single-guy life. Gaffigan was inspired by a commercial he saw for the preservative-packed snack and adapted it for his 2006 special, “Beyond the Pale.”

“Hot Pockets” is not Gaffigan’s best bit or even the best bit in “Beyond the Pale,” but it helped solidify his standing as a dad-bod, everyman hero. But “Hot Pockets” also proved his staying power. Gaffigan had long admired Dave Attell, George Carlin and Seinfeld, comics who almost religiously developed new material. His most famous bit would have to go.

“So, he was like, ‘I didn’t want to be the Hot Pocket guy but this has completely changed my tax bracket, right?’” says Jeannie. “For a while, he would do it as the curtain call. Come back and say, ‘Sorry, I had to leave for a minute and have a Hot Pocket,’ and everyone would go crazy. That went on for a couple of years until he was like, ‘I’m ready to let go of Hot Pockets.’”

After the Gotham appearance, Gaffigan, in a booth at a restaurant next door, pulls out a stack of scripts from his bag. The typed pages are marked up with different colored pens to show word changes, ideas for pacing and audience responses. Gaffigan records every performance on his phone and will listen back, hearing where a line fell flat, took off or could use a nudge. Then he scribbles.

“That’s the work ethic that separates the great comedians from the good comedians,” says Ted Alexandro, who has been opening for Gaffigan for years. “Arriving at the theater two hours early so that he can work over not just one week, one month or one year but, you know, 30 years is what creates someone that is about to release his 10th comedy special.”

Seinfeld says that obsessiveness, the desire to always try to figure out what will work onstage, is part of what makes Gaffigan special.

“I’ve been a comedian for 47 years, and over that time, I have worked with hundreds and hundreds of comedians,” says Seinfeld. “And I would say over 99 percent of them are not doing comedy anymore. The number one reason is how difficult it is to sustain this profession over many, many years. And the reason that some sustain and some don’t, you might think it has to do with how funny they are, but it actually isn’t. It’s that there are people that are so committed to it, they’re so in love with it and they’re so dedicated. We’re obsessed with it. We don’t even think about anything else.”

That’s only partially true. Gaffigan is obsessed with comedy, but he also wants to do more dramatic acting. He has branched out to pull off starring roles in independent films (the 2022 sci-fi drama “Linoleum”) as well as smaller, but memorable parts in larger productions. His latest, as a U.S. mail police supervisor in Steven Soderbergh’s “Full Circle” limited series on Max, has earned praise. He also played a pedophile in an episode of “Law and Order: SVU.”

“He’s fearless, and there was never a sense that he was trying to protect anything,” Soderbergh says in a phone interview. “And that’s key. If you’ve got any part of you that is not willing to jump off the cliff and is worried about how it’s going to look or how it may be perceived, then you’re not going to succeed. I think the dichotomy that he’s operating under is, is it good or is it not good? And if it’s good, I want to do it.”

“Dark Pale” is, as the title promises, not all smiles. There is a lengthy section about death, in which Gaffigan imagines his own funeral and pitches the audience on a reality show that involves a corpse and a cake.

“I remember being shocked at how dark it is,” says Jeannie, an executive producer on the special.

For Gaffigan, it’s part of a progression that’s been partially influenced by the pandemic. He believes that covid changed everything and everyone, some for better, some for worse. He contemplates how our children have been altered by canceled classes, ever-present masks and political debates about the pros and cons of a lifesaving vaccine.

At the end of the special, during the credits, he shares photos of friends and family members who have died, some many years ago. These include his parents and a pair of comedian friends, Greg Giraldo, who died in 2010, and Angela “Shecky Beagleman” Muto, who died last year.

After the cake bit, Gaffigan tells the audience, “This is usually the point when people ask, when are you going to do the food jokes?” Then, after barely a beat, he delivers: “Dead or cake is a food joke.”

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Jon Blistein

Jerry Seinfeld and Jim Gaffigan will link up for a special run of arena shows this fall.

The joint, four-date stand-up tour will kick off Nov. 3 at the Chase Center in San Francisco, followed by stops in Los Angeles (Nov. 4) and Chicago (Nov. 10). The run will wrap Nov. 11 at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis.

Tickets will go on sale next Friday, June 16, at 10 a.m. local time, though several presales will take place starting June 14. Full info is available on Gaffigan and Seinfeld’s respective websites.

In a statement, Seinfeld said of the tour, “Jim and I met doing Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and have been talking about doing this for years. We finally made the schedules work out.” 

Meanwhile, Gaffigan cracked, “I’m so excited to help out this unknown up and upcoming comedian who many may have never heard of. I know it will be an amazing bunch of shows.”

Seinfeld is also reportedly finishing up his new movie, Unfrosted , a comedy about the creation of the Pop Tart, partly inspired by his famous stand-up bit about discovering the breakfast treat as a kid. Seinfeld directed and co-wrote the movie, which will be his first major film project since the 2007 animated flick Bee Movie . Unfrosted will star Gaffigan, as well as Melissa McCarthy, Amy Schumer, Hugh Grant, James Marsden, Jack McBayer, Tom Lennon, Adrian Martinez, Bobby Moynihan, Max Greenfield, Christian Slater, and Sarah Cooper.

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Marsden also offered a few details about the movie in a recent interview with Rolling Stone , saying, “I love the story, it’s the race to invent the Pop Tart in the early sixties. I was playing a ridiculous character, Jack LaLanne, who was the first television fitness guru guy back in the 1950s. I knew him only because later in life he was swimming from Alcatraz towing 70 boats in his mouth. I’m in a full-on leotard with dance slippers. You don’t gotta put a nickel in me if the character is ridiculous. The more absurd the character is, the more I’m gonna jump at the chance to do it. They’re literally giving me pin curls with a curling iron, and I was like, ‘Yeah, sign me up.'”

Jerry Seinfeld and Jim Gaffigan Tour Dates Nov. 3 – San Francisco, CA @ Chase Center Nov. 4 – Los Angeles, CA @ Kia Forum Nov. 10 – Chicago, IL @ United Center Nov. 11 – St. Louis, MO @ Enterprise Center

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Jim Gaffigan: Dark Pale

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Standup Jim Gaffigan: ‘I never wanted to do us-and-them comedy’

The Grammy-nominated US comedian with a nice-guy reputation has warmed up for the pope and doesn’t swear on stage. But since he called out Trump on Twitter, are we seeing a new, spikier side to the ‘king of clean’?

W hen I first wrote about Jim Gaffigan, on his visit to the UK in 2017 , I asked: “Is this America’s Michael McIntyre?” OK, so the Indiana man is bluer of collar, and rather less gigglesome. But he was, like the Englishman, a purveyor of fun-for-all-the-family observational comedy, inhabiting that territory where funny foodstuffs, marital scrapes and pesky kids meet, and from which politics and rude words have made themselves scarce. Here was an act – known as “the king of clean” – who opened for the pope in Philadelphia before a million-strong audience, whose albums topped the Billboard comedy chart and secured six Grammy nominations, and who reigned supreme at standup comedy without ruffling any feathers whatsoever.

Suffice to say, when Gaffigan visits again this autumn, no one will be comparing him to McIntyre. On 28 August 2020, “it finally happened”, in the words of one askance US news report at the time: “Donald Trump broke the world’s nicest man.” The lifelong noncontroversialist Gaffigan had launched an extraordinary Twitter tirade against the then president, hot on the heels of that year’s Republican National Convention. Addressing his 3 million followers, from all sides of the political spectrum, he called Trump “a traitor and a con man who doesn’t care about you. Deep down you know it.” The president was “a liar, a criminal [and] a fascist who has no belief in law.” Gaffigan-watchers couldn’t believe what they were reading. Some predicted a career implosion. Gaffigan followed up with an explanatory Facebook post three days later, sarcastically titled What I’ve Learned Since I Lost My Mind .

“As for my Trump rant,” he tells me now, over Zoom from the US, “I’m somebody who does not think that anyone listens when a comedian or actor tells them to do something. But I had reached the point where I was so convinced there was this great con occurring that I was hoping to shake some moderate, who might be from a small town in the midwest like I’m from, to not be conned.”

Whether or not we should be thanking Gaffigan for Trump’s ousting at the ballot box a few months later, it seems that breaking the dam of his personal politics marked a watershed moment for the 56-year-old’s comedy. I’m not claiming he’s since become some Mark Thomas of the midwest but his 2021 Netflix special Comedy Monster, with its routines on Covid, QAnon, stolen land and “billionaire pretend-astronauts”, was noticeably spikier than Gaffigan’s usual fare.

Is that how the man himself sees it? Yes and no. On the one hand, “entertainment is the perception business”, he says. “And because I was clean, I’ve got five kids and I don’t curse on stage, people made assumptions: ‘Oh this guy is vanilla, he’s milquetoast.’ In fact, I’ve always made some political jokes. But I’ve also always had the approach of: it’s better to convince someone of your point of view with subtlety than with a hammer.” In his audience, he says proudly, “there’s always been the conservative Mormon family sitting next to the lesbian couple. I never wanted to do ‘us and them’ comedy.

It comes down to a matter of taste. While he has respect for “my brothers and sisters in comedy that get off on it”, Gaffigan’s is not for the kind of “edgelord” standup who rejoices in giving offence. “My whole thing is, you can communicate a point of view without throwing a punch as if it were 2am outside a pub.”

“You look at someone like [90s standup icon] Bill Hicks ,” he goes on. “A great comedic mind, but a lot of what he says seems shocking by today’s standards.” Seen as progressive at the time, Hicks’s shtick can feel homophobic or misogynist at 30 years’ distance. “Is that because we’re too fragile now,” asks Gaffigan, “or because we’ve evolved? The concept of liberty for gay people has changed so dramatically since the 90s. So are we sacrificing some individual liberty by not saying things that are offensive [to gay people]? Or are we just learning a greater level of civility?

“Maybe I’m just a dumb guy, but I’m like: ‘OK, if that pisses you off, I’m not going to say it.’ I don’t feel like there’s any freedom being infringed.” You could call that an apology for mild-mannered comedy – or you could credit a comic who makes an effort to engage constructively with the times, and with the debates that swirl around his art form. Certainly, there’s more to Gaffigan’s new show – called, with more than a hint of irony, The Fun Tour – than just a nonconfrontational disposition. Because “you’ve got to evolve”, says Gaffigan, who admits that his work is developing slightly sharper edges. “As a standup, I’m on my 10th hour now. And I view standup shows as a conversation among friends. And the friends we really like, they challenge us. Whereas the people that only want to have the same conversation with you, over and again – you get bored of them.”

For Gaffigan, the same conversation would be more jokes about being a “doughy” (his word), pale-skinned midwesterner, a hapless dad hitched to an ardently Catholic wife, and hopelessly addicted to bad food. (His signature, career-breakout routine is about the microwaveable American snack Hot Pockets.) All will feature, he promises, in the London-bound new show. But so too will a brand of comedy that responds to the changing times.

“Culturally, whether it’s bad or good, whether down to social media or the Kardashians, we have become more voyeuristic and more exhibitionist. And it’s become obvious that the personal point of view is an important price of entry to any artistic endeavour.” Of his new show, he promises something “pretty dark”, and influenced by “how the Brits see comedy”, which is that “shows should strive to have a message [and] be closer to a piece of art. You guys take comedy much more seriously than Americans.”

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If the show has a message, Gaffigan says, “it’s that after Covid, there’s a nihilism. We’ve been dealing with some harsh realities. What’s going on worldwide, it doesn’t look great. I don’t know about you but I’m like: what is the winter going to be like?” That may not sound like a hoot, as Gaffigan admits – but early reviews stateside, of a gallows-humorous show that tackles Death with a capital D, nose-diving aircraft, anti-vaxxers and divine retribution for humankind’s misbehaviour, are encouraging.

The show isn’t all Gaffigan has in the pipeline, mind you. While he knows you won’t know this about him, the New York resident is also a screen actor, with several live-action and voiceover roles under his belt – not to mention his autobiographical sitcom The Jim Gaffigan Show. He’s now got a plum upcoming role in Disney’s remake of Peter Pan, as Smee to Jude Law’s Captain Hook. But Gaffigan seems less eager to talk about this than about his standup, perhaps because “I’ve been acting for the past 10 years in mainly dramas, and with every single movie, my interviewers always ask: what’s it like to be a comedian in a drama?” I won’t ask, Jim, I promise! “Look, the first time I did a comedy special in the US, I was known for sitcoms. And the USA Today review was headlined ‘Sitcom actor tries standup’.” Even on a transatlantic Zoom call, I can feel the exasperation behind Gaffigan’s brave face. “It’s a perception-based industry,” he shrugs, “and I can’t control that.”

Happily, he’ll always have standup comedy to fall back on, an art form with which – as London beckons – he still seems sweetly in love. “I take pride in being a comedian,” he says. “There’s a big responsibility, of course. People don’t have much time. If you’re getting them to come to a theatre, you’ve got to deliver. You have to add value to their day.” But – whether joking about hot politics or Hot Pockets – “the creative fulfilment you get from coming up with a line, or figuring out how to set something up, or teasing out a question you want to examine … And the immediacy of standup! I don’t think there’s any art form that can compete with it.”

Jim Gaffigan plays the Eventim Apollo Hammersmith, London, on 13 November .

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Comedian Jim Gaffigan brings Barely Alive tour to San Antonio's Frost Bank Center Thursday

The title of his latest tour suggests he'll probably mine similarly fatalistic territory to his most recent special, dark pale ..

By Sanford Nowlin on Wed, Mar 20, 2024 at 9:54 am

• things to do in San Antonio ,
• Jim Gaffigan ,
• Frost Bank Center

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Jim Gaffigan

Barely alive tour, barely alive tour produced by jeannie gaffigan.

Jim Gaffigan To Return To Encore Theater At Wynn Las Vegas With BARELY ALIVE Tour

Performances will run September 4-7.

Seven-time GRAMMY-nominated comedian, actor, writer, producer, and two-time New York Times best-selling author, three-time Emmy-winning top touring performer, and multi-platinum-selling recording artist, Jim Gaffigan, has revealed new dates for his 2024 Barely Alive Tour, including four additional shows at Encore Theater at Wynn Las Vegas. Gaffigan will continue his headlining run at the venue, showcasing his unique brand of humor and his hilarious life observations on September 4-7, 2024, with each show beginning at 8 p.m. Tickets for all four performances go on sale to the public this Friday, March 1, 2024, at 10 a.m. PT. 

Ticket Information 

New Performance Dates: September 4 - 7, 2024; all shows at 8 p.m.

Public On-Sale: Friday, March 1, 2024 at 10 a.m. PT

Ticket Price: Tickets starting at $59.95 plus applicable fees 

Points of Purchase: Ticketmaster.com and JimGaffigan.com

Limited tickets remain for Gaffigan's upcoming performances at Encore Theater on April 3, 5 & 6, 2024, and are on sale now. For more information on these performances or to purchase tickets, visit WynnLasVegas.com .

In addition to seeing Gaffigan on the intimate Encore Theater stage, fans can also see him starring as the lead in the well-reviewed Sci-Fi dramedy, Linoleum, which was named one of Vulture.com's best movies of 2023. He also starred as Mr. Smee in Disney's Peter Pan and Wendy, opposite Jude Law and Yara Shahidi. He will soon co-star Jerry Seinfeld, Melissa McCarthy, James Marsden, and Hugh Grant in Netflix's Unfrosted, and co-stars in Susie Searches, which premiered at TIFF and in theaters last year. Also premiering recently, Gaffigan joined the cast of HBO Max's Full Circle, a limited series from Steven Soderbergh and Ed Solomon that follows an investigation into a botched kidnapping, connecting multiple characters and cultures in present-day New York.

Gaffigan is a top ten comedian according to Forbes' most recent comedy list and a top ten earning comedian in Pollstar. He released his 10th comedy special, Dark Pale, last year on Amazon Prime Video, an unprecedented achievement for the comedian/actor.  Dark Pale was met with critical fanfare with The New York Times calling it, ‘his best yet.” Last fall, Gaffigan co-headlined with Jerry Seinfeld for a sold-out multi-city arena tour. In 2021, Gaffigan released his 9th special, Comedy Monster, on Netflix, which was nominated for a Grammy Award. He was also recently awarded for being the first comedian to reach one billion streams on Pandora. 

On the silver screen, his many credits include Three Kings, Super Troopers 1 & 2, and Chappaquiddick. 2019 was Gaffigan's biggest year in film to date with an astonishing eight films releasing, three of which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival including Troop Zero with Viola Davis and Alison Janney, Them That Follow, and Light From Light – with many festival goers and press calling Gaffigan the “King of Sundance.”   Gaffigan was also recently heard in Disney/Pixar's highly anticipated animated film, Luca, opposite Jacob Tremblay and Maya Rudolph. 

Gaffigan had two films recently in which he debuted as the lead. The comedic film Being Frank, and American Dreamer, a dark thriller that features him as a ride-share app worker who moonlights as a private driver for a drug dealer. 

Gaffigan can also currently be seen opposite Ethan Hawke in IFC Films Tesla, as well as opposite Josh Hartnett in Saban Films' Most Wanted.

In addition to two seasons of the critically acclaimed semi-autobiographical The Jim Gaffigan Show, which he wrote and produced with his wife Jeannie, Gaffigan has guest starred on many television comedies and dramas, ranging from Portlandia and Bob's Burgers to the HBO cult hits Flight of the Conchords to dramatic roles in Law & Order.  

Gaffigan regularly does humorous commentaries on CBS Sunday Morning for which he has won 3 Emmys.  In 2018 Jim served as master of ceremony at The Al Smith Memorial dinner.  In 2015, Gaffigan had the great honor of performing for Pope Francis and over 1 million festival attendees at the Festival of Families in Philadelphia.  

Gaffigan and his wife currently live in Manhattan with their five loud and expensive children. For more info on the tour, go to: JimGaffigan.com/tour-dates .

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Great Shows. Good Times. Celebrating 15 Seasons

Jim Gaffigan

This event has passed, the biggest comedy event of the new season.

Jim Gaffigan is a six-time Grammy-nominated  comedian, actor, writer, producer, two-time  New York Times  best-selling author, three-time Emmy-winning  top touring performer, and multi-platinum-selling recording artist. He is known around the world for his unique brand of humor, which largely revolves around his observations on life. 

A top ten earning comedian according to Forbes’ 2019 comedy list, Jim recently released his 9th stand-up special,  Comedy Monster , on Netflix, which was hailed as “dynamite,” and “his best special,” by NY Times. He was also recently awarded for being the first comedian to reach one billion streams on Pandora. 

Up next, Gaffigan will be seen as the lead in the Sci-Fi dramedy,  Linoleum , which will premiere at SXSW this year, and will star as Mr. Smee in Disney’s  Peter Pan and Wendy , opposite Jude Law and Yara Shahidi.  He was also recently heard in Disney/Pixar’s highly anticipated film, Luca, opposite Jacob Tremblay and Maya Rudolph.

On the silver screen, his many credits include  Three Kings, Super Troopers 1 & 2 , and  Chappaquiddick . 2019 was Gaffigan’s biggest year to date with an astonishing eight films releasing, three which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival including  Troop Zero  with Viola Davis and Alison Janney,  Them That Follow and Light From Light  – with many festival goers and press calling Gaffigan the “King of Sundance.”   

Gaffigan also had two films recently in which he debuted as the lead. The comedic film  Being Frank , and  American Dreamer , a dark thriller which was the grand finale of 2019 for Jim and features him as a ride share driver who moonlights as a private driver for a drug dealer. Both films are now available for download. Gaffigan can also currently be seen opposite Ethan Hawke in IFC Films  Tesla , as well as opposite Josh Hartnett in Saban Films  Most Wanted . 

In addition to two seasons of the critically acclaimed semi-autobiographical  The Jim Gaffigan Show , which he wrote and produced with his wife Jeannie, and his widely popular stand-up comedy specials, Gaffigan has guest starred on many television comedies and dramas, ranging from  Portlandia  and  Bob’s Burgers  to the HBO cult hits  Flight of the Concords  to dramatic roles in  Law & Order .  

Gaffigan regularly does humorous commentaries on  CBS Sunday Morning  for which he has won 3 Emmys.  In 2018, Jim served as master of ceremony at  The Al Smith Memorial dinner .  In 2015, Gaffigan had the great honor of performing for Pope Francis and over 1 million festival attendees at the  Festival of Families  in Philadelphia.  

Gaffigan and his wife currently live in Manhattan with their five loud and expensive children.  

For other services and accomodations, visit our  Accessibility Page here .

Age Requirement

Please note that all guests require a ticket, regardless of age. Children under the age of 6 are not allowed at this performance. Children must be able to sit quietly in their own seat without disturbing other guests.

NEW - Cashless Payments for Snacks and Beverages at DPAC

• Cash is no longer accepted for snack or beverage purchases at DPAC’s lobby bars or snack and beverage stands.
• Snack and beverage purchases now require payment using credit or debit cards, Apple Pay or Google Pay or a DPAC gift card.
• If you happen to arrive at DPAC with cash only, guests may purchase a DPAC gift card in $20 increments at our Entry Lobby Guest Services window. These gift cards can then be used at any lobby bar or snack and beverage stand.

Content Advisory

DPAC offers a diverse selection of entertainment. Not all productions will appeal to or be appropriate for every guest or for all ages. While this show is generally thought to be family-friendly, ticket buyers should take responsibility for making informed decisions regarding their purchases. Comedy shows do not have official ratings, and we recommend visiting the official website of each show to learn more about the show you are coming to see at DPAC. If you ever have questions about the content or appropriateness of a show, please contact us at  [email protected] .

7:00 PM Show, Friday, January 27 and Saturday, January 28:

Our lobby doors open 60 minutes prior to show time.

9:30 PM Show, Friday, January 27 and Saturday, January 28:

Our lobby doors open 30 minutes prior to show time.

Event Schedule

7:00 PM Show, Friday, January 27, and Saturday, January 28:

6:00 PM- Lobby Doors 7:00 PM- Performance Begins

9:30 PM Show, Friday, January 27, and Saturday, January 28:

9:00 PM- Lobby Doors 9:30 PM- Performance Begins * Please note all times are approximate and subject to change without notice.

Face Covers - Optional

• Based on personal preference, face covers are welcome at this event, but not required. 
• Please note that health or safety requirements are subject to change per requirements of local or state officials or as specified by individual shows.

Inclement Weather

All performances scheduled at DPAC normally take place as planned. For more information on our inclement weather policy, please visit  INCLEMENT WEATHER FAQ .

Photography / Video Recording

• At the request of this show, photography, and video recording using mobile phones is not permitted.

Related Links

• Official Website

Safety First - Bag Check

• For your safety, all guests and their bags are subject to inspection before entry.
• This inspection may include the use of metal detectors.
• Restricted items include, but are not limited to: Alcohol, Cameras, Glass Bottles, and Weapons of any kind.
• In addition, no large bags are allowed including backpacks and large purses 12 or more inches deep.
• Small clutch purses are STRONGLY recommended.
• For family shows that allow very young children, diapers bags are allowed for guests with infants and toddlers (child must be present).
• Safety first is our goal. Please let us know if you have any questions or feedback at  [email protected]   

• Most tickets buyers purchase right from our website using the  Buy Ticket s  button on this page.
• In addition to purchasing online, DPAC offers several other ways to purchase the seats you want to the best Broadway, concerts, comedy, family shows and special events in North Carolina.
• Our computerized ticket system enables you equal access to great DPAC seats whether you buy online, by phone, or in person at DPAC.
• For more details, visit our  Purchase Seats  page for complete information on purchasing great seats for all events at DPAC.
• All tickets for DPAC events are fully digital and only accessible via your mobile device.  A mobile ticket is the safest, most convenient, and flexible way to receive and manage your tickets while increasing protection against fraud. To learn more about mobile entry, please visit our  Mobile Entry FAQ .

Vaccination / Negative Test Result – NOT REQUIRED

• Given the declining number of cases and the declining percentage of people who test positive here in our region, this show will no longer require verification of vaccination status or a negative test result as a condition of attending events.
• DPAC continues to encourage guests to consider public health guidance or advice from their medical providers on becoming fully vaccinated, receiving the booster vaccine (if eligible) or being regularly tested before coming to an event at DPAC.

Video Screens

Currently, this event has not approved using our video screens.  Please feel free to check back closer to the event for updates. If approved, we will post notice here.

For many concert, comedy, and special events at DPAC, we offer added views of the stage with two big screens (size: 16’ x 9’) hung to the sides of the stage or above the stage. These big screens can add to the visual experience of our concert, comedy, and special events and give guests seated farther from the stage what we like to call “a tenth row view”. Approval to use these screens always rests with the visiting show and about half of all concert and comedy events do use these screens.

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Jerry Seinfeld and Jim Gaffigan Announce 2023 Tour Dates

Four stand-up sets together this November

Jerry Seinfeld has a handful of more tour dates coming up in 2023, and this time, his pal Jim Gaffigan is come along with him. The two comedians have announced six arena stand-up tour dates together, Deadline reports.

Seinfeld and Gaffigan’s shows will go down November 2nd 3rd at the Chase Center in San Francisco, November 4th at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, November 9th 10th at the United Center in Chicago, November 11th at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis.

“Jim and I met doing Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee [Seinfeld’s Netflix show] and have been talking about doing this for years,” Seinfeld said in a statement. “We finally made the schedules work out. Can’t wait.”

Gaffigan aded: “I’m so excited to help out this unknown up and upcoming comedian who many may have never heard of. I know it will be an amazing bunch of shows.”

Tickets are available via StubHub , where orders are 100% guaranteed through StubHub’s FanProtect program. StubHub is a secondary market ticketing platform, and prices may be higher or lower than face value, depending on demand.

Seinfeld has a number of other standup shows on the calendar, including dates in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, as well as in Canada. Get tickets here .

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to note additional dates in San Francisco (11/2) and Chicago (11/9).

Jerry Seinfeld and Jim Gaffigan 2023 Tour Dates:

11/02 – San Francisco, CA @ Chase Center 11/03 – San Francisco, CA @ Chase Center 11/04 – Los Angeles, CA @ Kia Forum 11/09 – Chicago, IL @ United Center 11/10 – Chicago, IL @ United Center 11/11 – St. Louis, MO @ Enterprise Center

Jerry Seinfeld 2023 Tour Dates:

06/09 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Colosseum at Caesars Palace 06/10 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Colosseum at Caesars Palace 06/22 – Fort Wayne, IN @ Embassy Theatre 06/23 – Athens, GA @ The Classic Center Theatre 07/07 – Hershey, PA @ Hershey Theatre 07/07 – Hershey, PA @ Hershey Theatre 07/08 – Mashantucket, CT @ Premier Theater at Foxwoods Resort Casino 07/28 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Colosseum at Caesars Palace 07/29 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Colosseum at Caesars Palace 08/11 – Halifax, NS @ Garrison Grounds 08/12 – Summerside, PE @ Credit Union Place 08/18 – Lincoln, CA @ The Venue at Thunder Valley Casino Resort 08/19 – Temecula, CA @ Pechanga Resort Casino 09/22 – Winnipeg, MB @ Canada Life Centre 09/23 – Saskatoon, SK @ SaskTel Centre 12/01 – Atlantic City, NJ @ Borgata Event Center

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jim Gaffigan (@jimgaffigan)

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Fourth Show Added: February 29

The Feb. 29 performance has the most seats available. Tickets are also available at the Portland'5 Box Office . Service charges apply.

Jim Gaffigan: Barely Alive Tour

Fourth show added february 29 at 7pm.

Jim Gaffigan is a seven-time Grammy nominated comedian, actor, writer, producer, two-time  New York Times  best-selling author, three-time Emmy winning top touring performer, and multi-platinum-selling recording artist. He is known around the world for his unique brand of humor, which largely revolves around his observations on life.

Gaffigan is a top ten comedian according to Forbes ’ most recent comedy list and top ten earning comedian in Pollstar ’s 2022 list. He released his 10th comedy special,  Dark Pale , this year on Amazon Prime Video, an unprecedented achievement for the comedian/actor. Dark Pale  was met with critical fanfare with The New York Times calling it, ‘his best yet.”

In 2021 Gaffigan released his 9th special,  Comedy Monster , on Netflix which was nominated for a Grammy Award. He was also recently awarded for being the first comedian to reach one billion streams on Pandora.

Gaffigan can currently be seen as the lead in the well-reviewed Sci-Fi dramedy,  Linoleum , and stars as Mr. Smee in Disney’s  Peter Pan and Wendy , opposite Jude Law and Yara Shahidi. He will also co-star Jerry Seinfeld, Melissa McCarthy, James Marsden, and Hugh Grant in Netflix’s  Unfrosted , and co-stars in  Susie Searches  which premiered at TIFF last year and in theaters this summer. Also premiering this summer, Gaffigan joined the cast of HBO Max’s  Full Circle , a limited series from Steve Soderbergh and Ed Solomon which follows an investigation into a botched kidnapping connecting multiple characters and cultures in present day NY.

On the silver screen, his many credits include  Three Kings ,  Super Troopers 1 & 2, and  Chappaquiddick . 2019 was Gaffigan’s biggest year to date with an astonishing eight films releasing, three which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival including  Troop Zero  with Viola Davis and Alison Janney,  Them That Follow  and  Light From Light  – with many festival goers and press calling Gaffigan the “King of Sundance.”  Gaffigan was also recently heard in Disney/Pixar’s highly anticipated animated film,  Luca , opposite Jacob Tremblay and Maya Rudolph.

Gaffigan also had two films recently in which he debuted as the lead. The comedic film  Being Frank , and  American Dreamer , a dark thriller which was the grand finale of 2019 for Jim and features him as a ride share driver who moonlights as a private driver for a drug dealer.

Gaffigan can also currently be seen opposite Ethan Hawke in IFC Films' Tesla , as well as opposite Josh Hartnett in Saban Films’  Most Wanted .

In addition to two seasons of the critically acclaimed semi-autobiographical  The Jim Gaffigan Show , which he wrote and produced with his wife Jeannie, Gaffigan has guest starred on many television comedies and dramas, ranging from  Portlandia  and  Bob’s Burgers  to the HBO cult hits  Flight of the Concords  to dramatic roles in  Law & Order .

Gaffigan regularly does humorous commentaries on  CBS Sunday Morning  for which he has won 3 Emmys. In 2018 Jim served as master of ceremony at The Al Smith Memorial dinner. In 2015, Gaffigan had the great honor of performing for Pope Francis and over 1 million festival attendees at the Festival of Families in Philadelphia.

Gaffigan and his wife currently live in Manhattan with their five loud and expensive children.

For more info on the tour, go to:  jimgaffigan.com/tour-dates .

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5 Things to Do This Weekend

By Danielle Dowling April 26, 2024

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Zendaya, who plays the center point of a love triangle in “Challengers,” says its characters are “likable and charming — and terrible also.”

Here’s more on that film and other entertainment highlights this weekend →

Among the pleasures of Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers” ? Despite its tears, tight jaws and fussy chronology, “the movie isn’t trying to say anything important, which is a relief. It wants to engage and entertain you, and it does that very nicely,” Manohla Dargis writes. It’s in theaters today.

Paula Vogel’s “Mother Play,” starring Jessica Lange as a matriarch who straddles the line between monstrous and piteous, “honors the dead by making them alive again and nurtures the living by providing a place to put a daughter’s love and rage,” our critic writes. The drama is at the Helen Hayes Theater.

“Some people are going to beat the final boss on their first try; some people are going to take a hundred tries,” Nick Kaman, the head of Aggro Crab, says of the studio’s new game, Another Crab’s Treasure, which he describes as DarkBob SoulsPants. It’s available on most major platforms now.

Though the creepy-crawly French horror film “Infested” lacks “fresh ideas,” Sébastien Vanicek’s debut feature “scurries forward with such pep and purpose that its shortcomings are easily forgivable,” our critic writes. The movie is available to stream on Shudder today.

Before seeing Jim Gaffigan in the Netflix film “Unfrosted,” which reimagines the origins of the Pop-Tart, you can catch him on his “Barely Alive Tour,” which stops at the Beacon Theater for a few days this weekend. The shows are among our picks for entertainment in New York City.

Read our weekend roundup for more things to do in New York, or go to the Arts home page for the stories mentioned here and more.

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Unfrosted stars jerry seinfeld & jim gaffigan on the pros and cons of working with stand up comedians.

Screen Rant interviews comedy legends Jerry Seinfeld and Jim Gaffigan about their new Netflix film, Unfrosted, and the origins of their friendship.

• Jerry Seinfeld and Jim Gaffigan star in a new Netflix film Unfrosted , a comedy about a breakfast treat rivalry in the 1960s.
• Seinfeld makes his directorial debut in Unfrosted , reuniting with writing partner Spike Feresten from Seinfeld and Bee Movie.
• The film tells the story of Kellogg's and Post Cereal competing to create a new breakfast pastry in 1963 Michigan.

The story of the Pop Tart breakfast treat probably may not be terribly interesting, but when Jerry Seinfeld tells the story, it becomes a genuine comedy epic about corporate espionage, Cold War tensions, and living ravioli abominations run amok. In Unfrosted , which arrives May 3 on Netflix, Seinfeld stars as an employee at Kellogg's tasked with developing a breakfast treat to compete with one from their arch-rivals, Post Cereal. Fellow comedian Jim Gaffigan plays his boss, Edsel Kellogg III.

For those not in the know, Jerry Seinfeld is a bona fide comedy legend and star of his eponymous sitcom, Seinfeld , which ran for nine seasons on the NBC network. Unfrosted marks his directorial debut, and his first major film role since 2007's Bee Movie , which shares the same writing team as Unfrosted , including Spike Feresten, who also worked on Seinfeld in the 90s. Meanwhile, Jim Gaffigan is one of the most popular comedians working today and is as well known for his film and television roles as for his various stand-up routines.

10 Best Seinfeld Episodes, Ranked

While promoting the release of Unfrosted , Jerry Seinfeld and Jim Gaffigan sat down with Screen Rant for a brief interview about the film, its casting, the pros and cons of working with stand-up comedians, and the origins of their friendship.

Jerry Seinfeld & Jim Gaffigan On The Joy Of Netflix's Unfrosted

Screen Rant: Hello, Jerry and Jim!

Jerry Seinfeld: I read Screen Rant all the time! I like Screen Rant, yes!

We're grateful to hear that! I was talking earlier about how you've talked about only being concerned with the laugh. The buck stops there.

Jerry Seinfeld: Oh, cool! That's right.

You get the old gang back together, it's you and Spike, and you write this hilarious movie based on a classic bit that your tried-and-true fans know, and I imagine you send out feelers to all of your talented buddies across Hollywood... Who would say "no" to that?

Jerry Seinfeld: I don't think anybody says "no." There are some people who weren't available. A lot of people weren't available. Who did I try...? It's hard to get people because everybody is so busy. Anyone that's good is really busy these days, so it's hard to get people. Jim Gaffigan: Scheduling is not a foregone conclusion.

You got an insane cast, not the least of which is our friend, Jim Gaffigan! How far back do you to go, together?

Jerry Seinfeld: Ten years? Jim Gaffigan: Ten years, I would say. Then we fell in love.

Is there a meet-cute? Or is someone like, "Hey Jerry, do you know Jim? Jim, Jerry"

Jim Gaffigan: It was weird, because I remember... When you were going around doing the movie, Comedian, I remember. There was always, people were like, "I think Jerry Seinfeld would like your stand-up." But he was in the middle of doing this documentary. And that was 30 years ago... Jerry Seinfeld: 24 years ago, actually. And then we did an episode of Comedians in Cars (Getting Coffee), because I had seen him on TV, I did like his stand-up, and then we started going to the same clubs together, and working out together, it was just fun!

You look fantastic in those 60s glasses. Horn-rim glasses?

Jerry Seinfeld: Yeah, no... With the metal on the bottom, isn't that what you had? Jim Gaffigan: Yeah, yeah. Jerry Seinfeld: Everybody in Mississippi Burning has them.

Tell me about being directed by Jerry. Do you go, "Oh, I've got something funny," and Jerry's like, "Really? You think it's funnier than what I've got?" Or are you like, "If it's funnier, let's hear it."

Jerry Seinfeld: It is, a lot of times! Jim is as good a comedian as there is, so when he says, "I've got a funny idea," we listen, you know? And we used a lot of them! So, that's what's fun about working with stand-up comedians. What's not fun is most of them cannot act. Myself included. But he can! So he was a double threat, there, since he could act and he could write, and there's nothing better on a movie set than someone who can do both.

Well, it pays off. Thank you so much for the movie, and don't sell yourself short, I felt your pain as you "ran the gauntlet," or... What was it? Ran the Aisle, Walked the Aisle?

Jerry Seinfeld: Make him "Walk the Aisle." Yeah. "But sir, he's a family man!"

About Unfrosted

Michigan, 1963. Kellogg's and Post, sworn cereal rivals, race to create a pastry that will change the face of breakfast. A tale of ambition, betrayal, sugar, and menacing milkmen, UNFROSTED stars Jerry Seinfeld in his directorial debut.

Check out our other Unfrosted interviews here:

• Spike Ferensten
• Christian Slater, Sarah Cooper & Max Greenfield

Unfrosted releases May 3 on Netflix.

Source: Screen Rant Plus

Unfrosted (2024)

Unfrosted is a 2024 biographical comedy directed, written, and starring Jerry Seinfeld. The film takes place in 1963 Battle Creek, Michigan, where Kellogg's and Post are fighting to create a new world-changing breakfast pastry.