David Harris

Kurt Vonnegut once said, “Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.”

Who among us doesn’t feel at least a little of this by the end of the workweek? I’m with Vonnegut, though — while there’s nothing wrong with a good cry, a good laugh is always better.

At least, that’s how we at the Paramount see it.

Comedy Night comes to the Paramount Theatre at 7:30 p.m. this Friday.

Featuring Midwest Emmy-winning comedian David Harris, who has more than 20 years and 2000 performances under his belt (and really good hair) on both stage and screen, the show will also bring an impressive range of comedy in terms of both style and content.

While David’s comedy is inclusive and person-driven, his fellow comic Logan Nielsen (a St. Ansgar native and improv comedy veteran) delivers with a loose style and infectious energy. Angie Larsen,  a 16-year-old Rochester native, will emcee for the evening with her own original material, and with her comes father Jeff Larson, whose humor is replete with the observational realities and absurdities of growing up in a newly suburban age of so-called innocence.  In his act, he targets first (and second) girlfriends, and how to lose them, married life, Karaoke, nuclear war and the desks that saved us, and the perils of model airplane glue.

Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 at the door. Grab yours at austinareaarts.org, by calling us up at the box office (507-434-0934), or by stopping by the ArtWorks Center. Bonus: we’ve reopened on Tuesdays. Come on down and laugh with us.

You won’t even have to do the cleaning up part.