Shawn Wickens, comedian and theater producer (Bad Theater Fest / Bad Film Fest), announces the release of his debut comedy album: Silly Jokes @ Sorry Open Mics. The experimental compilation includes tracks recorded exclusively at free, stand-up open mics across New York City. Silly Jokes @ Sorry Open Mics is available for purchase on Amazon and iTunes, plus available for streaming on Spotify, Tidal, Groove Music, YouTube Music and more.
No stranger to publicity grabbing, boundary-pushing "stunt shows", Wickens has previously required audience members to sign non-disclosure agreements promising to not even speak of the contents of his material. In 2016 he stayed awake for 24 straight hours working on new jokes which he performed during the 25th hour with zero sleep. Time Out New York called the show "hilarious, delirious and refreshingly raw." Best New York Comedy named the show a "comedy pick of the week" and was featured by Comedy Cake.
"Fellow comedians and colleagues hate open mics," states Shawn Wickens, "Yet they also begrudgingly admit there is a benefit to working out new material during any stage time you can get. By recording various open mic sets I'm acknowledging these aren't the ideal venues but make the best out of a situation that many other comedians detest."
Deborah Thomasian of ComedyCake.com calls Silly Jokes @ Sorry Open Mics, "pure, unadulterated comedy at it's finest," and finds, "A cautionary tale of dog sitting, the Voltron origin story of Shawn's dark humor and a cheesecake eating dilemma at a Golden Girls themed restaurant," to be highlights.
Wickens reveals that the importance of the album was less about crafting perfect sets and more about capturing various live performances that worked in front of live, unsuspecting crowds. "We live in a reality show world where a lot of the pop culture we consume is polished and manufactured. The jokes that appear on the album - some of these are the very first time I performed them live in front of a crowd. I even bomb on track 5. But I still include it because maybe it's interesting to be honest instead of perfect. None of the audio is spectacular, but it really captures the ambiance of being in a dirty, dusty and dank New York City show."
As co-founder of Bad Theater Fest, established in 2012, Wickens has devoted much of his creative time and energy in championing art that lives off the beaten path. In 2016, Bad Theater Fest received a grant from the New York Indie Theater Fund for their work with performers of color. Every dollar from that grant went directly to the artists Bad Theater Fest serves. Wickens himself received a 2016 visual arts grant from the Hell's Kitchen Foundation.
Over the last year, Shawn Wickens has really hit the road, performing in Baltimore, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Hartford and Princeton. He recently did his first show in his hometown of Cleveland at an abandoned church. On
September 16 and 17 he will perform three shows at the Rochester Fringe Festival. When not doing open mics in New York City he regularly performs at The PIT, Magnet Theater, UCB, Eastville Comedy Club, The Duplex and Broadway Comedy Club.
Silly Jokes @ Sorry Open Mics is Wickens's first album. He plans a follow-up.
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