Saturday night and another great line-up of comedy, this time at the Comedy Bar on the Danforth, near Victoria Park. It was nearly a full house for the second night of the brand new Danforth Comedy Festival and I was thrilled to be introduced to headliner Nathan Macintosh who blew the roof off the place!
First off, MC Azfar Ali (below) warmed up the already pumped crowd, spritzing with several individuals who were very into the show. He set the tone perfectly for all the comics and maintained the high-energy in the room throughout the entire night.
Azfar first intro’d Simone Holder (below) who I had seen the previous night at a different venue. She did not disappoint, unleashing a series of stories on being a “lady of a certain age”, sex and life seen thru the eyes of being single. Simone rocked it!
Then Akeem Hoyte-Charles (below) took the stage – well, he actually “took” the room. His fast-fire commentary on being the best boyfriend in the world had the ladies swooning and the guys a little nervous…LOL. Imagine Kevin Hart meets Eddie Murphy and you get the idea how talented this guy is.
Next up, Luke Lynndale (below) who had the crowd laughing in recognition when discussing the pro’s and con’s of supermarket self check-outs and the dilemma of shopping when there are no carts available. And his bit on socializing in the dog park, well…if you have a dog, you’ll understand completely.
Then came the big guy! Nathan Macintosh knocked it out of the park. It’s been a long time since I enjoyed a stand-up’s set so much, applauding and cheering, begging for an encore. Nathan is the real thing. I ran Yuk Yuk’s Komedy Klub back in the 80s and always loved discovering brilliant comedic talents over the years, and seeing Nathan headline was like the first time watching the acerbic delivery of New Yorker Ritch Shydner (true comedy fans should recognize that name). 
Tonight, Sunday Aug.6 I’m heading back to the Comedy Bar to see another cool line-up with headliner Efthimios Nasiopoulos – perfect for Greektown! Hope to see you there.
For show line-ups, dates & times, visit: www.danforthcomedyfestival.com
Follow your favourite comedians via Instagram:
@nathanmacintosh
@adventures_of_azfar
@_simonecomedy_
@akeemgramz
@lukelynndale
@comedynuggets