Lydia Manning Is Passing Time Waiting for the Clubs to Reopen by Entertaining Instagram and TikTok With Goofy Videos

“Since my adolescence, ‘you’re funny’ was the one compliment that I really swooned over. It’s still my favorite compliment to get.”

Whitney Streed Can’t Wait for the Chance to Bomb Onstage After a Year Without In-Person Performances

“When the only thing that’s funny to you is how poorly it’s going, that would be amazing to feel again. You’re never more alive.”

Tory Ward Turns TMI Into LOLs, and Oversharing Into Therapy

“I talk to myself compulsively. It’s usually stuff that’s embarrassing. I’ll just repeat what happened over and over again to try to make it funny. I think it’s to try to relieve the agony.”

Local (and Formerly Local) Performers Adapted During the Pandemic by Creating New, Streamable Content

Katie Nguyen’s Jokes Are Noticeably Lacking in Mean Spirit. Instead, She Pulls Humor Out of the Absurdity of the Everyday.

“People with a weird sense of humor tend to like me more. There’s people who think I’m not funny at all, who like things that I don’t think are funny at all. That’s cool.”

Quarantine Can’t Stop Comedy. Here Are the City’s Top Comics, as Chosen by Their Peers

As the pandemic wore on, it became clear that gathering in tight quarters while forcefully expelling respiratory droplets in appreciation of a good bit about hoarding toilet paper wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. It’s the reason we initially decided to forgo our annual survey of more than 100 comics, club owners, bookers and megafans, looking for the best standups in the city. But then we realized something: Just because stages are empty doesn’t mean comedy isn’t happening. It’s happening in empty parking lots at guerrilla-style drive-in shows. It’s happening at BYOC street performances—that’s “bring your own chairs.” And, of course, it’s happening on the internet, on every platform available. And so, here is your Funniest Five Class of 2020. Better late than never.

With the New Podcast “Whatchu Wanna Know,” Black American Portland Improv Troupe Broke Gravy Stirs in Truths of a Different Flavor

Comic Bri Pruett on Her Ideal Stoned Portland Afternoon, Cannabis-Influenced Tarot, and the Time She Got Way, Way Too High

Pruett may have traded Stumptown for Hollywood, but the comic has stayed on the local radar nonetheless. She’s coming back to town—virtually speaking, anyway—this Friday to host the 420 Social Smoke Session, as part of WW’s Willamette Weed digital cannabis week, featuring a budtender-guided smoke sesh, special guests and live music.