Performing Arts❯Comedy❯Stand-Up

This fall, Portland welcomes an extraordinary celebration of classical ballet as PRIMA Ballet Gala brings together artists of the Grand Kyiv Ballet and international guest performers for one unforgettable night.

More than a performance, PRIMA Ballet Gala is a night of elevated artistry – where timeless classics meet contemporary expression, and the stage becomes a space of beauty, power, and emotion.

The program features iconic highlights from world-renowned ballets including Don Quixote, Spartacus, and The Dying Swan, alongside vibrant national dance such as the thrilling Hopak, set to music by legendary composers including Tchaikovsky.

Begin your evening on the red carpet, then step inside for a celebration of artistic excellence and international cultural connection.
Guests are warmly encouraged to attend in the evening attire, helping create an atmosphere of elegance worthy of this special occasion.

Join us for a rare opportunity to experience world-class dancers, timeless choreography, and a night filled with beauty and inspiration.

Seats are limited. Be part of PRIMA Ballet Gala — where ballet speaks from the heart.

Meet the Tokyo Kanpai Boys, Japan's funniest stand-up comedians bringing brand-new material and a wildly entertaining look at life & comedy through Japanese eyes.

Featuring Kansei Yasuda, Daniel Wilson, Shota Saimu and Daisuke Muramoto.

Whether they're explaining Japanese dating culture, exposing everyday misunderstandings between East and West, or simply proving that awkwardness is universal in every language, Tokyo Kanpai Boys delivers a show that's packed with laughs.

Don’t miss this unforgettable night of international comedy that bridges cultures through laughter. Cheers ("Kanpai!") to that. 🍻

Featuring:

Kansei Yasuda

Originally from Tokyo and now based in Toronto, Kansei is one of the fastest-rising international comics working today. A Golden Ticket winner on Kill Tony, he has toured throughout North America and Asia, earning acclaim for his energetic storytelling, sharp cultural observations, and brilliantly unpredictable style.

Daniel Wilson

A Japanese-American comedian based in Tokyo, Daniel has built a massive global following through his viral "Let Me Teach You Some Japanese" videos, earning over200,000 Instagram followers and 5.5 million TikTok likes. Trained at Japan's prestigious Watanabe Comedy School, he combines Japanese and American comedy traditions into a style that's both insightful and endlessly relatable.

Shota Saimu

Known for his deceptively quiet stage presence and devastating punchlines, Shota has become a favorite among audiences in both Japan and the United States. Performing in both English and Japanese, his dry delivery, understated confidence, and viral online clips have made him one of Japan's most exciting emerging comedic voices.

Daisuke Muramoto

One of Japan's most recognizable comedians, Muramoto first rose to fame as half of the legendary manzai duo Woman Rush Hour, appearing on hundreds of television programs before reinventing himself as one of Japan's boldest stand-up voices. His acclaimed documentary I Am a Comedian chronicles his journey from mainstream celebrity to internationally touring performer whose fearless comedy tackles politics, culture, and identity.

Management reserves the right to prevent customers from entering the facility who they deem disruptive or dangerous to other patrons.

Live Wire joins forces with the Portland Art Museum for an afternoon of roving performances ahead of an evening recording of the program. The event coincides with PAM's monthly Free First Thursday and the Portland Book Festival's expanded programming. Performers will include poet and rapper Dessa, bestselling children’s author Mac Barnett, Pulitzer Prize Finalist Ed Park, and Portland comedian Mx. Dahlia Belle.

Free pop-up performances will take place throughout the Museum’s galleries, giving visitors a chance to catch live performances and storytelling while moving through the PAM spaces. Completely free through PAM’s Free First Thursday general admission. Also, enjoy a fully seated, ticketed Live Wire taping hosted by Luke Burbank with announcer Elena Passarello, featuring a blend of interviews, comedy, and music performed live for the audience, then edited into an episode for broadcast to over 200 public radio stations nationwide.

Visitors can take in the afternoon gallery pop-ups, the evening show, or both.

Portland Art Museum invites the community to join a Free First Thursday event, offering free admission to the museum for all, plus a Live Wire event as part of the Literary Arts Portland Book Festival. Visitors can take in the afternoon gallery pop-ups, the evening show, or both!

4:30 – 6 p.m. — Free, pre-show, pop-up performances will take place throughout the Museum’s galleries. Performers are poet and rapper Dessa, bestselling children’s author Mac Barnett, Pulitzer Prize Finalist Ed Park, and Portland comedian Mx. Dahlia Belle.

Free First Thursday tickets can be reserved online one week in advance and are also available at the door.

7 p.m. — Enjoy a fully seated, ticketed Live Wire taping hosted by Luke Burbank with announcer Elena Passarello, featuring a blend of interviews, comedy, and music performed live for the audience, then edited into an episode for broadcast to over 200 public radio stations nationwide. Performers are poet and rapper Dessa, bestselling children’s author Mac Barnett, Pulitzer Prize Finalist Ed Park, and Portland comedian Mx. Dahlia Belle. Doors will open at 6:30pm.

GA Tickets are $15. Preferred Seating is $40. Discounts available to Portland Book Festival passholders.

Dessa is a singer, rapper, and writer who fell in love with language as a toddler—and just never got over it. Now, she works in fields that traffic in words: she’s recorded rap bangers as part of the fiercely independent Doomtree collective, released a live album with the Grammy-winning Minnesota Orchestra; contributed to The New York Times and National Geographic Traveler; delivered a TED Talk on the intersection of romance and neuroscience that’s notched more than 4 million views; hosted 2 seasons of behavioral science podcast Deeply Human (BBC/American Public Media); and published a memoir recounting most of the above called My Own Devices (Penguin Random House).

Mac Barnett, the 2025–2026 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, is a New York Times bestselling author of stories for children. Mac’s books have won many prizes, including two Caldecott Honors, three New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Book Awards, three E. B. White Read Aloud Awards and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, as well as several international prizes. He lives in Oakland, California. His latest book, illustrated by X. Fang, is Tom Nancy: The Sheep Who Swapped Brains with a Boy. From two of the most exciting picture book makers today comes a hilarious trickster tale and Freaky Friday switcheroo story: a sneaky, cheeky sheep named Tom Nancy has a brain swap proposal for an innocent farm boy named Felix that will change both of their lives forever. Laugh-out-loud, subversive, and totally unexpected.

Ed Park is the author of the novels Personal Days and Same Bed Different Dreams. He is a founding editor of The Believer, and has worked in newspapers, book publishing, and academia. His writing appears in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, Harper’s Magazine, The Atlantic, and elsewhere. Profound, wily, and beautifully wrought, his new book Three Tenses: A Transmission from the Nineties is a meeting of memory and myth, confession and obfuscation, coalescing to offer a singular picture of creativity in action.

The princess of Portland comedy, best known for her breakout performance on the popular Netflix special Hannah Gadsby’s Gender Agenda, Mx. Dahlia Belle has been compared to a Swiss Army knife—different tools to extract sharpness, softness, vulnerability, hope, and wicked wit. She’s been declared one of “11 Trans Comedians… Funnier Than Dave Chappelle” by Out Magazine, repeatedly featured on NPR, and has written for Cosmopolitan Magazine, The Guardian, The Stranger, and Portland Mercury. Her live performances have included NW Black Comedy Festival, Upper Left Comedy Festival, SF Sketchfest, and an awkward conversation with John Waters and Piers Morgan. In the upcoming live taping of her comedy special Affirmed at Polaris Hall on November 22nd, Mx. Dahlia Belle delivers 60 new minutes of stand-up to celebrate and affirm being human in the modern world through a combination of the wholesome and mundane, anecdotes about house cats, liscivious foibles of the LGBT community, and an unapologetic account of her personal journey with gender-affirming care, all delivered with her trademark free form wit.

Free First Thursdays at the Museum and PAM CUT’s Tomorrow Theater aligns with the revitalization of the long-standing Portland art galleries’ tradition of opening their doors for openings, receptions, and events on the first Thursday of each month. In recent months art and culture organizations have joined to bring back this popular activity, including the Pacific Northwest College of Art and the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education in the North Park Blocks.

Generous support provided by Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program.

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It took Cam all of 3 weeks to drop out of college at FAMU to pursue comedy full time at the age of 19. Cam recently appeared on Season 16 of ‘America’s Got Talent’ receiving a “Yes” from all 4 celebrity judges, Simon Cowell, Heidi Klum, Sophia Vergara, and Howie Mandel. In 2019, Cam Bertrand became the youngest comic to win the 'Florida's Funniest' competition, beating out over 300 comics, previous winners include Daniel Tosh, Bert Kreischer, Preacher Lawson and JB Ball. In that same year, Cam also became the youngest comedian to record his own half hour comedy special with DryBar comedy, his special 'Sophisticated Ignorance' which has garnered over 140 million total views since its release. Cam has built up a social media following of nearly 1 Million Followers on TikTok, 176k on Instagram, 270k on Facebook, and 47k on Youtube. He has also worked with some of the biggest names in comedy today including: Joe Rogan, Andrew Schulz, Matt Rife, Bert Kreischer, Pete Davidson, Hannibal Buress, Michael Che, Josh Blue, and Mike Epps. Couple's Package includes: - 2 premium seats - $90 food & beverage credit ($45 per person)- Gratuity - Ticket Protection Management reserves the right to prevent customers from entering the facility who they deem disruptive or dangerous to other patrons.

Part comedy special, part concert, and full of surprises. Bernice Ye, dubbed “The Jackie Chan of Comedy” by The Stranger, brings Wuhan Clan Ain’t Nuthin’ ta Duck Wit to Portland’s Kickstand Comedy for one night only. Wu-Tang energy meets immigrant storytelling in a live show blending stand-up, original comedy rap, martial arts, audience interaction, and cinematic multimedia. It’s about identity, ambition, and building your own clan when the world doesn’t hand you one.

Born in Wuhan, China, Ye came to the U.S. with $1,000 and a computer science degree from Peking University. She built a career at Microsoft and Hulu, then walked away from tech for the comedy stage. Now an internationally touring comedian, comedy rapper, and taekwondo black belt, she turns that unlikely journey into an evening of laughter, music, and reinvention. It was the most unhinged sequence of decisions she’s ever made. It’s working. With 400K+ followers and more than 100 million views online, Ye has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Stranger, and Seattle Gay News. Her credits include the New York Comedy Festival, Bergamot Comedy Festival, and Best of the Fest honors at Burbank Comedy Festival, Laugh After Dark, and Nate Jackson’s Super Funny Comedy Festival.

Following previous appearances at The Siren Theater, Ye returns to Portland with the road-tested show that launched a 13-city national tour. Whether you’ve followed her online or are discovering her for the first time, you’re invited into the Wuhan Clan. Come for the comedy. Leave with a clan—and songs stuck in your head.

What do you get when Don Lemon, award-winning journalist, and DL Hughley, one of the original Kings of Comedy, and highly recognized stand-up comedians come together for a night of conversation?

Expect the unexpected from these two brilliant minds doing their public service while taking you on a journey exploring topics spanning everything from social issues, race, pop-culture and current events. Nothing is off limits!

Some evenings stay with you forever. This fall, Portland welcomes an extraordinary celebration of classical ballet as PRIMA Ballet Gala brings together artists of the Grand Kyiv Ballet and international guest performers for one unforgettable night. More than a performance, PRIMA Ballet Gala is a night of elevated artistry – where timeless classics meet contemporary expression, and the stage becomes a space of beauty, power, and emotion.

The program features iconic highlights from world-renowned ballets, including Don Quixote, Spartacus, and The Dying Swan, alongside vibrant national dances such as the thrilling Hopak, set to music by legendary composers such as Tchaikovsky. Begin your evening on the red carpet, then step inside for a celebration of artistic excellence and international cultural connection. Guests are warmly encouraged to attend in evening attire, helping create an atmosphere of elegance worthy of this special occasion.

Join a rare opportunity to experience world-class dancers, timeless choreography, and a night filled with beauty and inspiration.

Seats are limited. Be part of PRIMA Ballet Gala — where ballet speaks from the heart.

One of the crowning achievements of the German expressionist movement, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau’s THE LAST LAUGH stars Emil Jannings stars as an aging doorman whose happiness crumbles when he is relieved of the duties and uniform which had for years been the foundation of his happiness and pride. Through Jannings’s colossal performance, THE LAST LAUGH becomes more than the plight of a single doorman, but a mournful dramatization of the frustration and anguish of the universal working class.

Limited number of discount passes to see all the films in the Weimar Germany: Queer Visions series while supplies last.

• Director: F.W. Murnau
• Year: 1924
• Country: Germany
• Runtime: 90 minutes