Review: FIRST WEEKEND ROUNDUP at Gilda's Club LaughFest With Clean Comedy All-Star Showcase, and Miranda Sings.

Gilda's LaughFest 2020 kicked off Thursday, March 5th and goes through Sunday, March 15th. Thursday started with an opening proclamation featuring Grand Rapids Mayor Roslynn Bliss and others looking back on the last ten years and ahead to 2020. The first weekend full with events for everyone, ranging from family friendly to some adult only comedy, making it a great kick off to the event!

I had the pleasure of sitting in on two enjoyable and very funny events this past weekend including Clean Comedy All-Star Showcase, which included talent from Georgia to Colorado, with a wide range of talent and jokes. Kermet Apio, Erin Jackson, Louis Ramey, Gina Brillon, John Novosad, and Joe Zimmerman covered topics ranging from Costco, buffets, food obsession, and even NPR. It wouldn't be a modern event if you didn't have some current event jokes about politics with the president to the current CDC pandemic of the Corona Virus to go along with the show.

The special artist in this show range from returning LaughFest performers to those new to the LaughFest stage. Some of these wonderful and talented comics have made their mark professionally in appearances on late night shows and comedy channels both on radio and television. If you are attending any of the shows at the B.O.B., one thing to keep in mind is that venue requires a Valid, 21+ Photo ID for admission to any shows starting after 9 P.M. In addition, any shows in Dr. Grin's Comedy Club inside the B.O.B., has a two drink minimum per ticket purchased, but they do not have to be alcoholic.

Friday night, I saw an act who need no introduction due to her YouTube popularity with over 10 million subscribers and 2 billion views, and 6.6 million Instagram followers, 1.8M Facebook "Likes." LaughFest welcomed back for the third time, Miranda Sings, portrayed by multi-talented actor, trained vocalist, writer, executive producer, and comedian Colleen Ballinger. Miranda Sings is a fictional character, based off of her real-life childhood, but with a personality completely opposite of her own real life.

Miranda Sings, came out of things Colleen was made fun of during her childhood years. Instead of ignoring them she intensified them, creating Miranda. Then out of that came the classic Miranda line, "Haters Back Off". This is cool to me with the amount of young people I saw, I feel there is a message of great importance to be who you are, and that can be for adults as well.

The show ranged in all different variations of comedy as Miranda was trying to find a new family for her baby, because she just didn't want one. We spent the night on a journey trying to find potential daddy's for the baby. Even one very small and cute Mir-fanda trying to help be a mommy, but saying she didn't think she'd be a good fit. Then two dads got their moment on the stage to see if they could handle the "famous" life-style that would come with raising a famous child, this was done in a musical montage with comedic costumes and props ranging from Titanic to Frozen. There was plenty more fun along the way including a dance party with all popular dances from the 2000s, along with a musical hits sing along, including original Miranda songs.

After still not finding a home for her child, she goes into her magic booth to see if she can find the perfect parent. She goes in and emerges as Colleen who the daddy meter pings as the perfect parent! We got to spend the next 20 min with Colleen who performed her "self-written musical", that she took straight from her childhood diary, along with a few more songs. She then to finishes with her version of "pop songs" which she says before "I can't sing pop, because I'm trained in opera, and show music. This is what it would sound like" to go on and perform pop hits in a very impressive opera voice that I could have listened to all evening.

Although Miranda Sings was a one show event and the Clean Comedy All-Star Showcase was the first weekend only, these were 2 great shows and I would encourage you to check out info on the remaining shows for LaughFest. The second week of shows include headlining shows: Russell Peters, Ralph Harris, Maria Bamford, and Fortune Feimster. Also more of Best of Midwest, Battle Bots Improv, Laughter Yoga, individual one night comedy shows, and even a LaughFest game night. You can Find out more about all the other shows online at: www.laughfestgr.org

Connect online with Miranda Sings: on YouTube at youtube.com/mirandasings, on Twitter at @MirandaSings, on Instagram at @MirandaSingsOfficial, and on Facebook at facebook.com/MirandaSingsOfficial

Connect with Calleen Ballinger: on YouTube at youtube.com/user/PsychoSoprano, on Twitter at @ColleenB123, on Instagram at @colleen, and on Facebook at facebook.com/Colleenb1234

Connect online with LaughFest to keep up to date with all the events: at https://www.laughfestgr.org, on Twitter at @laughfest, on Instagram at @laughfestgr, and on Facebook at facebook.com/LaughFest

Connect with Gildas Club Grand Rapids for info on there important work with emotional health, at www.gildasclubgr.org, on Twitter at @Gildas_Club_GR, on Instagram at @gildasclubgr, and on Facebook at facebook.com/gildasclubgr.

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