Skip to main content
After nearly a decade, Minority Retort’s stage time is up.
Portland’s premier standup comedy showcase featuring Black and Brown comedians will host its final show May 24 at its longtime home, the Siren Theater. It’s ending because co-founder and show host Jason Lamb says he is out of the time, energy and money to keep it going, despite his passion for the project.
Lamb started the show with comedian Jeremy Eli in 2015 as a response to the idea of Portland being the whitest big city in the U.S.
“We wanted to respond to that directly, not just in respect to how the city is perceived but it trickles down to how the comedy scene is perceived,” Lamb says. “That’s what I’ve been most proud of, is we’ve been able to try to do that.”
Lamb’s cites a July 2022 Minority Retort show at Laurelhurst Park in partnership with Kickstand Comedy and Portland Parks & Recreation that drew over 2,000 people as a highlight of the nine-year run. He also loved getting to host comedians such as Baron Vaughn, Marcella Arguello, Atsuko Okatsuka and David Gborie.
“People thought we’d run out of comedians in six months up here and we’d be done,” Lamb says. “It was a person of color who said that to me, by the way.”
The show relied on the model of bringing headliners to Portland from out of town while highlighting plenty of local talent. The grand finale will feature standups who have done the show consistently over the years, including former host Julia Ramos, Debbie Wooten (“an absolute killer,” Lamb says) and Adam Pasi, who has been named Portland’s funniest person by Helium Comedy Club (2019) and Willamette Week (2016).
A portion of the ticket and merch sales will go to the Black Parent Initiative.
Curtis Cook (of Hulu’s This Fool and TBS’ American Dad!) will headline. Nathan Brannon, Minority Retort’s first-ever headliner from 2015, will also return for the last show.
Lamb is also working on some “special surprise guests” to entertain the final crowd.
“They should expect the unexpected,” Lamb says. “Well, they can expect it to be funny.”
Minority Retort: The Grand Finale at Siren Theater, 3913 N Mississippi Ave. 7:30 pm doors, 8 pm show Friday, May 24. $15–$20.