This past Friday my wife and I saw Jim Gaffigan at the Fox Theater in Detroit.
I had not been looking forward to driving downtown, fighting traffic and crowds, and just the whole hassle, having recently injured my shoulder. And his first joke was like he was reading my mind: “I appreciate you guys taking the trouble to come down to see me. Because it’s just easier to stay on your couch and scroll on your phone, right? At first, when it’s hypothetical, it seems like a great idea-- ‘Hey, Jim Gaffigan is coming to town; let’s go!’. Then it becomes real: ‘What? You actually bought tickets??’. Then the morning of the show, you’re thinking ‘I wonder if I can sell these tickets… 
’”.
It was a great show, and I’m glad I didn’t sell our tickets! I think he’s one of the most consistently funny comedians in the biz right now.
I got to thinking, my wife and I have seen some pretty good, or at least interesting, comedy acts over the years. Here’s a list from memory in roughly chronological order from most recent:
Jim Gaffigan - See above.
Bobcat Goldthwaite - This was kind of a ‘what the hell’ choice. I thought of him as ‘that weird, not very funny guy with the goofy voice in all those 80s movies’. But tickets were dirt cheap, it was at a comedy club very close to our house, so what the hell. His stand-up turned out to be very funny (and fortunately he’s dropped the goofy voice). He had been good friends with Robin Williams, which I did not know, and had toured with him a lot, so he had a couple touching and funny anecdotes about Robin (complete with a spot-on impersonation).
Michael Kosta - (one of the commentators on The Daily Show). Funny show, and since he grew up in SE Michigan, he had a lot of local jokes which personalized the show a bit.
Sarah Sherman - (current SNL member). Known as ‘Sarah Squirm’ when she did stand-up before SNL, she specializes in gross-out humor. And her show had plenty of that. I like gross-out humor, and I think she became a breakout star on SNL for good reason (the ‘singing skin tag’ skit she wrote and starred in her first season is a classic), but I think it was a bit too heavy on the ‘gross-out’ part and light on the ‘humor’ part.
TJ Miller - Another ‘what the hell’ choice. Having recently been canceled in Hollywood, tickets were pretty cheap. His stand-up was fairly funny, especially considering I didn’t even know he was a stand-up comedian at all. Probably the most memorable part of the show was, we were there with my friend and his girlfriend, and he is kind of a loudmouth, who didn’t exactly heckle Miller, but yelled out a couple responses to things Miller said. Miller started engaging with him, so my friend basically became part of the show. It was equal parts embarrassing and funny.
Demetri Martin - I’ve always liked his style of comedy, and just the way his comedy mind works. This show did not disappoint. Pro tip: a good chunk of his act (at least, when we saw him) is drawing things on a large pad of paper. Unfortunately, it was very hard to see from our seats, even on the big display screen. So if you ever go to see him, either spring for close seats, or bring mini-binoculars.
Kids in the Hall on Tour - Kind of a ‘greatest hits’ show, recreating some of their classic skits and characters like chicken lady. Fun show.
Nick Swardson - Possibly best known as a rollerskating gay prostitute recurring character on Reno 911. Since we both loved the show we went to see him. His stand-up was ok.
That’s about all the ones I remember right now. Let’s hear who you’ve seen, and feel free to share any anecdotes you have about the shows…