Comedy

Run, don't walk, to West T. Hill Community Theatre on Third Street to see “Rounding Third” - a terrific comedy/drama about two Little League coaches and their clashing personalities. This show is recommended for all parents of kids who play competitive sports - and for those whose kids are in the spring musical! Excellent jobs by Walter Eng, Chuck Taylor and director Bill Nichols. Another home run! Liz and Bob Orndorff Danville

The 56th season at Pioneer Playhouse closes with a standup comedy show starring Kathy Buckley, a hearing-impaired comedian, motivational speaker and humorist. The four-time American Comedy Award Nominee as Best Stand-Up Female Comedienne. She was wrongly labeled retarded as a child, run over by a jeep, pronounced dead by paramedics and diagnosed with cervical cancer - all before the age of 30. Buckley says - part wryly and part seriously - attendees can expect to laugh and cry. "I'll probably be doing most of my standup," she said in a phone interview.

Holly Henson seems faintly puzzled by by the interest in her standup comedy gig at the Pioneer Playhouse Friday and Saturday. "I've been bowled over by the amount of interest," she says. Then comes the zinger. "For 10 years, people have been telling me to do my standup in Danville," Henson explains. "I always refused. I was artistic director (for several years) and that's a different skill. It's hard to switch gears and be the fun monkey. " She pauses. "I felt like people thought I was lying about my standup career.

Holly Henson, the stand-up comedienne who took over as executive artistic director of summerstock theater Pioneer Playhouse after her father died in 2004, died today. She was 51 and had battled breast cancer for years. Henson started her career in show business by performing fairy tale songs and dances on a rickety plywood stage that she and her brothers had built beside the family garage. Performing was second nature to Henson, as her father was Col. Eben Henson, the founder of Pioneer Playhouse.

HARRODSBURG - The comedic stylings of Lee Cruse will be on display Thursday at Eddie Montgomery's Steakhouse here. Cruse, a WLEX-18 as well as a Lexington radio personality, started performing stand-up in 1995. “It was something I always wanted to do,” Cruse said in a telephone interview. “I started in Louisville at open mics until I was proficient enough to find work.” He worked his way through the ranks and makes regular appearances all around the commonwealth, performing.

The Main Street Playhouse will be holding open auditions for "Trouble at The Tropicabana," a murder mystery-comedy dinner theatre production. Audition from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., Aug. 16, and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., Aug. 17. The Main Street Playhouse is located at 114 S. Main St., Nicholasville. For more information or to receive an audition packet, call (859) 881-8247 or e-mail susanpowers@bluegrassarts.org.

The Ragged Edge Community Theatre and Trim Masters, Inc., are pleased to present I Hate Hamlet, a comedy by Paul Rudnick, Sept. 13-16 and 20-23. Show times are 8 p.m. Thursday thru Saturday, and 3 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are on sale now at $10 for adults and $7 for children 12 and under. Call (859) 734-2389 or reserve your tickets online at www.raggededgetheatre.org. The Ragged Edge Community Theatre is located at 111 S. Main Street, Harrodsburg.

It seemed like a smart thing to do at the time: Invite two from the audience to act as "dummies" for Mike Hemmelgarn's comedy ventriloquist act at the Clark County Public Library's Summer Reading Program. It was going fine, with Hemmelgarn touching the shoulders of Elijah Taylor, left, and Lexi Cook to let them know to move their mouths. It soon got out of control with Elijah and Lexi vying for center stage and trying to steal the show from Hemmelgarn. The unexpected twist to the act added to the laughter from the audience.

(Sun photos by Jerry Schureman) Leeds Center for the Arts' stage will be transformed into a down-home Jamboree this weekend when local talent will perform country, bluegrass and early rock and roll music, along with some Hee Haw-type comedy by Winchester government officials. Tickets for the event are $5 and are available by calling 744-6437. Showtime is 8 p.m. both nights. Recording artist Jennifer Webb belts out a song during a recent rehearsal.

On April 26, the Highbridge Film Festival dazzled more than 1,400 attendees with a Hollywood-style showcase of Asbury College's best student produced films. Decked out in their best attire, students and friends of the College streamed into Hughes Auditorium for a night filled with action, drama and side-splitting comedy. The films weren't the only student work displayed during the evening. Since Jan., 18 students in Prof. Greg Bandy's special events class have been organizing the three-day Engaging Culture Weekend, which culminated on Saturday evening.