barrymorelive.com\/event\/comedy-bang-bang-2<\/a><\/p>\n<\/aside>\nAukerman said he gets very little information from comedians before they come on \u201cComedy Bang! Bang!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t discuss anything beforehand about what we\u2019re going to talk about,\u201d he said. The tour will bring out \u201cComedy Bang! Bang!\u201d all-stars playing characters frequent listeners will recognize.<\/p>\n
Aukerman spoke with the Cap Times ahead of his Madison show about the tour name \u201cGround Beefing,\u201d how he encourages comedians to be silly and how the podcast stays relevant for newer audiences.<\/p>\n
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\nCan you talk about the name of your tour, \u201cGround Beefing?\u201d When I read this, I assumed it meant you and Paul F. Tompkins were going to fight.<\/strong><\/p>\nNo \u2014 we\u2019re literally bringing ground beef to every audience member. That\u2019s the promise that we make to our listeners: we want them to leave with their bellies full.<\/p>\n
Some people will just get a meatball, and some might get a huge, Costco-size packet of ground beef that\u2019s raw, but we want everyone to be munching on it during the show.<\/p>\n
If you don\u2019t know the very specific joke that the show title is based on (made on our Best of 2025 episodes), it might be confusing, but it sounds silly, right? If you don\u2019t know exactly what it\u2019s referring to, it sounds like it\u2019ll be a silly show. And that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to apply with it.<\/p>\n
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\n <\/p>\nThe Comedy Bang! Bang! Ground Beefing tour will stop in Madison on May 27 at the Barrymore Theatre.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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COURTESY OF COMEDY BANG! BANG! <\/span> Wisconsin has a long history of meat raffles, so that fits right in.<\/strong><\/p>\nReally? Like raffling off meat?<\/p>\n
Yeah, you go to a bar, and they raffle meat.<\/strong><\/p>\nEverything is described in the words \u201cmeat raffle.\u201d<\/p>\n
You interview a lot of comedians playing improvised characters, and you toe the line between sparking people to be silly versus seeking clarity from your guests. How do you see your role as the interviewer of a comedy show with made-up guests?<\/strong><\/p>\nI think I described it once as comedy lawyering. It\u2019s a particular way to do a scene where you\u2019re the straight man reacting to someone\u2019s quirkiness, and you\u2019re trying to heighten that for them while still being the voice of reason. You\u2019re picking apart their story and trying to find inaccuracies.<\/p>\n
A lot of times, when people are playing characters, they\u2019ll misspeak. Improvisation is based on \u201cyes, and…\u201d but sometimes, someone misspeaks and gives a funny detail that they didn\u2019t mean to say, and I capitalize on it because it\u2019s going to open up a whole new crazy level of improv.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s one of my jobs, picking apart someone\u2019s story \u2014 not to make them not seem right, but to heighten the story, and turn down avenues that otherwise would go unexplored.<\/p>\n
I imagine that requires a lot of active listening on your part.<\/strong><\/p>\nThankfully, I have a brain where I\u2019m picking apart what someone\u2019s saying and going, \u201cYeah, but why did this happen?\u201d When someone\u2019s telling a story about their personal life, I naturally am inquisitive about the details of why things are happening.<\/p>\n
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\n <\/p>\nThe last time THE “Comedy Bang! Bang!” tour stopped in Madison was in 2024. Host Scott Aukerman, left, welcomed comedians Charlie McCrackin, Vic Michaelis, Lily Sullivan and Paul F. Tompkins.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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KENZIE TREZISE<\/span> I\u2019m there to ask questions that (the guests) haven\u2019t thought about. They have to answer on the spot, which then will take us to a really interesting place, which is the whole reason to do improv.<\/p>\n
I think if someone came in and just did a character that they pre-planned already, and they knew every part of their story, and I was just there to set up questions for them that I already knew the answers to, it wouldn\u2019t have that special feeling right improv has, right?<\/p>\n
\u201cComedy Bang! Bang!\u201d just celebrated its 17th anniversary. What do you think has made the show relevant for so long?<\/strong><\/p>\nI booked a stand-up\/sketch show here in LA for 10 years. It was very hard to get stage time in LA \u2026 a show would get their roster of people that they liked putting up, and they wouldn\u2019t actively search for new people. You would see the same people every week. And then your audience tends to age along with the show.<\/p>\n
I always actively try to get new people (on the show). Some years I\u2019m better at it than others. Sometimes, if I\u2019m really, really, really busy with a particular job, I rely on the same reliable people that I know will be great, but I try to take chances on new people.<\/p>\n
I think this is a particularly fun era of \u201cComedy Bang! Bang!\u201d where there are a lot of new people, and I think this is going to be a fun tour, with a lot of people who have never toured with us before and who are appearing on stage with us for the first time.<\/p>\n
What should our Madison audience expect from the show?<\/strong><\/p>\nThey should expect it will end. I know people go to a show, they see a start time, and then go, \u201cWait a minute \u2014 this is gonna last until I keel over and have a heart attack!\u201d We will end. You\u2019re not going to have to say goodbye to your relatives and never see them again.<\/p>\n
Paul F. Tompkins, the great comedian and improviser, is going to be with me on every show. He\u2019s doing a different character, not only every night, but he keeps track of the characters he\u2019s done in each city. Madison will see him play a different character than he\u2019s ever played anytime he\u2019s been in the city.<\/p>\n
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\n <\/p>\n“Comedy Bang! Bang!” host Scott Aukerman said Paul F. Tompkis, right, will join him on every stop of the tour, along with a rotating cast of “Comedy Bang! Bang!” all stars. In this photo from the 2024 tour, the duo are joined by Lisa Gilroy and Ego Nwodim.<\/p>\n
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MARC FONG<\/span> I\u2019m going to have Paul as well as probably three other guests there, and they\u2019re all going to be playing crazy characters. I think Madisonites are going to be very pleased with who is joining us.<\/p>\n
One of my co-workers, when I told him I was interviewing you, mentioned a 2014 episode with The Calvins Twins<\/a> as one of his favorites.<\/strong><\/p>\nThat\u2019s one of my all-time favorites. I asked Taran (Killam) and Paul (Brittain) to be on the show. We all got into the room, and Paul and Taran looked at each other and said, \u201cWhat should we do today?\u201d<\/p>\n
Taran said, \u201cWell, I had an idea about people who own a ranch, and they have boxing matches for horses.\u201d Paul said, \u201cGreat,\u201d and then we pressed record on the tape.<\/p>\n
Here is one of the most insane unravelings of that basic premise, where the details get so heightened and so crazy … I think that\u2019s the \u201cComedy Bang! Bang!\u201d ideal. You start with the most basic kernel of a premise, and then the more you explore it, the lore gets so complicated and so incredibly detailed and funny that we\u2019ve done so many sequels to that episode. They\u2019re always a pleasure to do.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source captimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cap Times is an independent newsroom serving Madison and Wisconsin. Sign up for the Food & Culture newsletter for exclusive weekly insight. The 17th anniversary special for \u201cComedy Bang! Bang!\u201d released on May 4 featured quite the lineup. Podcast host Scott Aukerman welcomed his nana, Yoda, Jim Seals (half of the rock duo Seals […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2408939,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2408938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Comedy-Bang-Bang-brings-\u2018Ground-Beefing-to-Madison-Entertainment.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2408938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2408938"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2408938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2408940,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2408938\/revisions\/2408940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2408939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2408938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2408938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2408938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}