Show starts at 7:30pm • Doors Open at 6:30pm
LIVE WIRE MEMBERS RECEIVE 15% OFF
COVID-19 and General Ticket Information is available HERE.

IJEOMA OLUO

Ijeoma Oluo (ee-joh-mah oh-loo-oh) is a Seattle-based Writer, Speaker and Internet Yeller. Her work on social issues such as race and gender has been published in The Guardian, Esquire, Washington Post, ELLE Magazine, New York Times, NBC News and more. She has been featured on The Daily Show, All Things Considered, BBC News, and more. Her #1 NYT bestselling first book, So You Want To Talk About Race, was released January 2018 with Seal Press. Her Second book, MEDIOCRE: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America, was published December 2020 with Seal Press and her upcoming book, Be A Revolution: How Everyday People Are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World - and How You Can Too, will be released January 2024 with Harper One. Ijeoma was named one of the Most Influential People in Seattle by Seattle Magazine, one of the 50 Most Influential Women in Seattle by Seattle Met, one of The Root's 100 Most Influential African Americans in 2017 & 2018, and is the recipient of the Feminist Humanist Award 2018 by the American Humanist Association, the Harvard Humanist of the year 2020, the Media Justice Award by the Gender Justice League, and the 2018 Aubrey Davis Visionary Leadership Award by the Equal Opportunity Institute.

JOHN CRAIGIE

Much like community, music nourishes us mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. It also invites us to come together under the same roof and in a shared moment. In similar fashion, John Craigie rallies a closeness around music anchored by his expressive and stirring songcraft, emotionally charged vocals, lively soundscapes, and uncontainable spirit. The Portland, OR-based singer, songwriter, and producer invites everyone into this space on his 2024 full-length album, Pagan Church. Following tens of millions of streams, sold out shows everywhere, and praise from Rolling Stone and more, he continues to captivate.

“The music is always evolving and devolving with each new record,” he observes. “With my last album Mermaid Salt, I really wanted to explore the sound of isolation and solitude as everyone was heading inside. With this record, I wanted to record the sound of everyone coming back out.”

In order to capture that, he didn’t go about it alone…

Instead, he joined forces with some local friends. At the time, TK & The Holy Know-Nothings booked a slew of outdoor gigs in Portland and they invited Craigie to sit in for a handful of shows. The musicians instinctively identified an unspoken, yet seamless chemistry with each other. Joined by three of the five members, Craigie cut “Laurie Rolled Me a J” and kickstarted the process. With the full band in tow, they hunkered down in an old schoolhouse TK & The Holy Know-Nothings had converted into a de facto headquarters and studio, and recorded the eleven tracks on Pagan Church.

JANE MARIE

Jane Marie is a Peabody and Emmy Award–winning journalist, a former producer of This American Life, and the host of podcasts The Dream and DTR. Her writing has appeared in Jezebel, Cosmopolitan, The Toast, and more. Her book “Selling the Dream: The Billion-Dollar Industry Bankrupting Americans” exposes the scourge of multilevel marketing schemes and how they have profited off the evisceration of the American working class.

W. KAMAU BELL

W. Kamau Bell is a stand-up comedian, director, producer, husband, and dad. For seven seasons, he was the host and executive producer of the five-time Emmy Award-winning CNN docu-series United Shades of America. In 2023 he won an Emmy for his HBO documentary 1000% Me: Growing Up Mixed. He also won a Peabody Award for his 2022 Showtime docu-series We Need to Talk About Cosby. He is the co-author of the New York Times bestselling book Do the Work: An Antiracist Activity Book and the author of The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell: Tales of a 6' 4", African American, Heterosexual, Cisgender, Left-Leaning, Asthmatic, Black and Proud Blerd, Mama’s Boy, Dad, and Stand-Up Comedian. His newest writing project is the substack newsletter, Who's With Me? His comedy special, Private School Negro, is available on Netflix.

The James Theater • Iowa City, Iowa

Show starts at 7:00pm. Admission: Included with festival pass, individual tickets also available

* This show is not included in our Portland Season pass.

SG GOODMAN

Heralded as an “untamed rock 'n' roll truth-teller” by Rolling Stone, S. G. Goodman gracefully pushes out a sound that is folky yet “gritty” and layered with ethereal vocals. Goodman’s 2020 debut album Old Time Feeling, which tells a story of life in the South, was co-produced by My Morning Jacket’s frontman Jim James. Her second full length album Teeth Marks was released in 2022 which Pitchfork describes as “synthesized decades of Southern music into a singular vision.”

MORGAN PARKER

Morgan Parker is the author of young adult novel Who Put This Song On?; and the poetry collections Other People’s Comfort Keeps Me Up At Night, There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé, and Magical Negro, which won the 2019 National Book Critics Circle Award. Parker is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, winner of a Pushcart Prize, and a Cave Canem graduate fellow. Her debut book of essays, You Get What You Pay For, traces the difficulty and beauty of existing as a Black woman through American history, from the foundational trauma of the slave trade all the way up to Serena Williams and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

CARMEN MARIA MACHADO

Carmen Maria Machado is the author of the best-selling memoir In the Dream House and the award-winning-short story collection Her Body and Other Parties. She is also the co-editor of "Critical Hits: Writers Playing Video Games," a collection of essays in which the writer-gamers find solace from illness and grief, test ideas about language, bodies, power, race, and technology, and see their experiences and identities reflected in―or complicated by―the interactive virtual worlds they inhabit.

SIMON SHIEH

Simon Shieh is a Taiwanese American poet and essayist. He is the co-founder Spittoon Literary Magazine, which translates the best new Chinese writing into English. From 2008-2014 he competed as an amateur and professional Muay Thai fighter in China, Brazil, Argentina, Thailand, and the U.S. "Master: Poems", his first collection of poetry, follows the speaker’s struggle with masculinity from a martial arts school in upstate New York to a boxing academy in Beijing. The collection was the winner of the Kathryn A. Morton Prize and is a finalist for the 2023 Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

Town Hall Seattle - Great Hall • Seattle Washington

Show starts at 7:30pm • Doors Open at 6:30pm
$35 General Admission • $45 Preferred Seating
LIVE WIRE MEMBERS RECEIVE 15% OFF

Town Hall Seattle Health and Building Policies are available here.

* This show is not included in our Portland Season pass.

DULCÉ SLOAN

DULCÉ SLOAN is one of the sharpest, fastest-rising voices in comedy. Bust magazine calls her “comedy gold,” while Indiewire describes her as “a fresh and unique voice in the world of stand-up comedy.” She was included in Variety’s prestigious Top Ten Comedians to Watch list, and Slink magazine just crowned her “The New Queen of Comedy.” Rolling Stone recently hailed her as one of the Ten Comedians You Need to Know. As a correspondent on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Trevor Noah since 2017, her segments have garnered millions of views. Dulcé stars as one of the voices on the animated FOX series The Great North, joining an ensemble of comedy heavyweights, including Will Forte, Jenny Slate, Nick Offerman, and Megan Mullally. When Dulcé’s Comedy Central Presents stand-up special premiered on Comedy Central, the New York Times included the half hour in their “Best Comedy of 2019” roundup.

DESSA

Singer, rapper, and writer Dessa has made a career of bucking genres and defying expectations—her résumé as a musician includes performances at Lollapalooza and Glastonbury, co-compositions for 100-voice choir, performances with the Minnesota Orchestra, and top-200 entries on the Billboard charts. She contributed to the #1 album The Hamilton Mixtape and the RBG documentary; her track, “Congratulations,” has notched over 20 million streams. As a writer, she’s been published by The New York Times and National Geographic Traveler, broadcast by Minnesota Public Radio, and published a memoir-in-essays (My Own Devices, 2018) in addition to two literary collections. As a speaker, Dessa has delivered keynote speeches and presentations on art, science, and entrepreneurship; guest lectures at universities and colleges across the US; and a TED Talk about her science experiment on how to fall out of love. She’s also the host of Deeply Human, a podcast created by the BBC and American Public Media. Dessa has been covered by Pitchfork, Forbes, and The Wall Street Journal amongst others. The LA Times says she “sounds like no one else.” NPR’s All Songs Considered calls her “a national treasure.” On the stage and on the page, Dessa’s style is defined by ferocity, wit, tenderness, and candor.

JAY JURDEN

Jay is a comedian, actor and an Emmy and WGA nominated writer based in New York City. He was recently a staff writer and panelist for The Problem With Jon Stewart on Apple TV + and his standup has been featured everywhere from Comedy Central to NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon three times, CBS’ The Late Late Show with James Corden and The Drew Barrymore Show. In 2019, Jay was selected to be a New Face as part of the prestigious Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal and in 2022, Jay was selected as one of Variety’s 10 Comics To Watch.

ANNIE RAUWERDA

Annie Rauwerda is a writer, comedian, and Wikipedia enthusiast who lives in New York City. She maintains the "Depths of Wikipedia" social media accounts and she is writing a book about Wikipedia set to be published by Little, Brown in 2025.

Come celebrate Live Wire THEN, NOW, and EVERYTHING in-between with a packed
line-up of immense talent! It all takes place Saturday, March 16 at Revolution Hall!

Our Roots: Show Bar at Revolution Hall

3-4:30 pm: Luke Burbank interviews early host and head writer Courtenay Hameister alongside founders Kate Sokoloff and Robyn Tenenbaum! Expect great storytelling and great dish from the early days of Live Wire!

5-6:30 pm: We are thrilled to bring back some of the original members of FACES FOR RADIO! This ‘best of’ sketch comedy extravaganza is directed and hosted by Courtenay Hameister.

Main Stage Show: Revolution Hall

8-10 pm, doors open at 7 pm: We'll be joined by long time Live Wire friends, esteemed writer Cheryl Strayed, comedian Mohaned Elsheiky, and soul-band Ural Thomas & The Pain, and MORE!

TICKETING:

• $125: VIP All-Access Pass grants you all-access to both events + our post-show reception

• $45-75: General Admission and Preferred Tickets (8pm show only)

• $25: Afternoon Programming/3-7 pm in Show Bar - passes are available as an add on!

Fine print: Live Wire Members receive discounts with Member Code. Season Passholders: the Anniversary Main Stage Show (8pm) is included in your season pass. Food and drinks will be available all day and night for purchase at Show Bar!

CHERYL STRAYED

Cheryl Strayed is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, which was made into an Oscar-nominated film; Tiny Beautiful Things, which was adapted into a Hulu television series and as a play; Brave Enough; and the novel Torch. Her books have sold more than five million copies worldwide and have been translated into more than forty languages. Her award-winning essays and short stories have been published in The Best American Essays, the New York Times, the Washington Post Magazine, Vogue, and elsewhere. Strayed writes the popular Substack newsletter “Dear Sugar” and has hosted two hit podcasts, Dear Sugars and Sugar Calling.

MOHANAD ELSHIEKY

Mohanad Elshieky is a New York based, Libyan born comedian who made his national TV debut on Conan and has been featured on Comedy Central. A writer on the hit podcast "Lovett or Leave It", he was also one of the hosts of Lemonada’s webby nominated podcast "I’m Sorry." In 2018, he appeared in an episode of Epix’s "Unprotected Sets" and has been featured in Kumail Nanjiani's Little America book.

URAL THOMAS & THE PAIN

Born in Meraux, Louisiana, in 1939, and moving with his family to Portland, Oregon during World War II, Ural Thomas grew up to become Rose City’s Soul Brother Number One. Already an established singer in his teens, he became the leader of the wild twistin’ rhythm and blues vocal group The Monterays – who achieved regional fame and recorded the canonical single “Push-Em Up” for the local Sure Star Records. His success brought him to Los Angeles where he caught the ear of industry bigwig Jerry Goldstein of The Strangeloves, best remembered for managing Sly and The Family Stone and producing dozens of iconic records by the likes of War, The McCoys, and The Angels. Goldstein saw star quality in the young singer and brought him into the studio with arranger Gene Page (known for thousands of recordings with everyone from Aretha Franklin to Elton John to a veritable who’s who of Motown stars) to record two landmark 1967 singles “Pain Is The Name of Your Game” and “Can You Dig It” for the MCA pop subsidiary UNI. Around this point Ural also recorded a 1968 live LP for MCA’s soul imprint Revue and the 1967 James Brown-informed proto-funk dancefloor dynamite that is “Deep Soul” for Seattle’s Camelot label. All are widely admired and continue to be heard at DJ sets and dance parties worldwide. ​

Ural Thomas & The Pain's new album Dancing Dimensions will be released 3rd June via Bella Union and available to preorder here. To mark the occasion the celebrated soul star has shared an entertaining part-animated video for the album’s irresistible title track and announced a London Jazz Cafe show on Friday 17th June as well as performing at the End Of The Road festival in September.

Patricia Reser Center for the Arts • Beaverton Oregon

Show starts at 7:30pm. $35 General Admission (after fees), $25 Student & Under 35 (after fees)

Patricia Reser Center for the Arts Health and Building Policies are available here.

* This show is not included in our Portland Season pass.

BIANCA BOSKER

Bianca Bosker is the New York Times bestselling author of Cork Dork and a contributing writer at The Atlantic. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Best American Travel Writing, and been recognized with awards from the New York Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, and more. Her new book Get the Picture: A Mind-Bending Journey Among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See is out February 6, 2024.

TESSA HULLS

Tessa Hulls is an artist, writer, and adventurer who is equally likely to disappear into a research library or the wilderness. Her essays have appeared in The Washington Post, Atlas Obscura, and Adventure Journal, and her comics have been published in The Rumpus, City Arts, and The Margins. She has been awarded grants from the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, 4Culture, and the Robert B McMillen Foundation, and received the 2021 Washington Artist Trust Arts Innovator Award. For the last almost-decade, she has focused on making Feeding Ghosts (MCD, 2024), a graphic memoir that traces three generations of women in her family across a backdrop of Chinese history to explore the complicated ways that mothers and daughters both damage and save one another.

SARAH MARSHALL

Sarah Marshall is a writer, podcaster, and media critic who wonders why we keep falling for the same old myths. Why is the maligned woman a staple of our news media? Why do we believe that serial killers are brilliant? How do we keep stumbling into all these moral panics? These are some of the questions that propel Sarah’s work as co-host of the popular modern history podcast You’re Wrong About, which has been highlighted in the New Yorker, the Guardian and Time Magazine. She loves Portland, Oregon, Philly and Las Vegas in that order, and rumor has it she is writing a book about the Satanic Panic.

PURE BATHING CULTURE

Pure Bathing Culture is a Portland based indie pop band consisting of members Sarah Versprille and Daniel Hindman. Their debut album Moon Tides was released in 2013 following the release of three additional full length albums of dreamy shoe gaze melodies with a touch of sparkle. They’ve toured with Father John Misty, La Luz, Widowspeak, and Tennis. Their latest album Chalice was released in 2023 which embodies a collection of songs about the ritual of creativity, progress and transformation, and the search for transcendence and joy.

Show starts at 7:30pm • Doors Open at 6:30pm
LIVE WIRE MEMBERS RECEIVE 15% OFF
COVID-19 and General Ticket Information is available HERE.

MOSHE KASHER

Moshe Kasher is a stand-up comedian, writer, and actor. He is the author of Kasher in the Rye. He has written for various TV shows and movies, including HBO’s Betty, Comedy Central’s roasts and Another Period, Zoolander 2, Wet Hot American Summer, and many more. His Netflix specials include Moshe Kasher: Live in Oakland and The Honeymoon Stand Up Special. He’s appeared in Curb Your Enthusiasm, Shameless, The Good Place, and other fun things. He co-hosts The Endless Honeymoon podcast with his wife, Natasha Leggero. Publisher's Weekly calls his latest book, Culture Vulture: A Memoir in Six Scenes, “[a] winning blend of humor and pathos . . . This will resonate with readers who’ve felt alone in an overwhelming world.”

SLOANE CROSLEY

Sloane Crosley is the author of the novels Cult Classic and The Clasp and three essay collections: Look Alive Out There and the New York Times-bestsellers I Was Told There’d Be Cake and How Did You Get This Number. Grief Is for People is her sixth book.

GLITTERFOX

Glitterfox is a Portland, OR-based indie folk band lead by married couple Solange Igoa and Andrea Walker with Eric Stalker and Blaine Heinonen on bass and drums. Since being named one of Portland's "Best New Bands" by the Willamette Week in 2022, coming away from Oregon Country Fair 2022 one of the most buzzed-about breakout acts, and being named winners of the High Sierra Music Festival Band Competition in 2023, Glitterfox has worked relentlessly to electrify their live show while honing in on the inimitable "west coast indie meets Southern Americana songwriting" style that defines Glitterfox song craft.

MX. DAHLIA BELL

Hilarious, ignant, and the best sort of mess, Portland-based comedian 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 and the funniest of Willamette Week's Funniest Five. In addition to having written for Cosmopolitan Magazine, The Guardian, The Stranger, and Portland Mercury, she has been a repeat guest on NPR, CBC, XRAY FM, and Portland Radio Project (PRP). Live performances have included NW Black Comedy Festival, Upper Left Comedy Festival, Mutiny Radio, and an awkward conversation with John Waters and Piers Morgan.

Show starts at 7:30pm • Doors Open at 6:30pm
$30 General Admission • $45 Preferred Seating
LIVE WIRE MEMBERS RECEIVE $5 OFF

DAVE HILL

Dave Hill is a comedian, writer, actor, and musician who has appeared on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Girls5eva, Joe Pera Talks with You, Inside Amy Schumer, @midnight, and Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, among other programs. He is the author of four books, including The Awesome Game: One Man’s Incredible, Globe-Crushing Hockey Odyssey in which Dave searches to answer the ultimate question in sports: Why is hockey so incredibly awesome? He is a regular contributor to public radio’s This American Life, hosts the podcast The Dave Hill Goodtime Hour, and is the resident heavy metal expert on Malcolm Gladwell and Rick Rubin’s Broken Record podcast. Dave also plays guitar and sings in his own rock band, Valley Lodge, whose song “Go” is the theme song for HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.

HARI KONDABOLU

As one of Live Wire's very favorite guests, comedian Hari Kondabolu might be the smartest person you laugh at this year. Before becoming a regular on public radio and appearing on NPR's Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me and Midday on WNYC, Hari earned a Masters in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and worked as an immigrant rights organizer in Seattle. Because of his educational background, his comedy is a complex blend of social commentary, honest personal experience, and trenchant political wit. He has released two comedy albums and has performed on Conan, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and The Late Show with David Letterman among others.. His 2018 Netflix special, Warn Your Relatives, made many "Best of" lists, and his critically-acclaimed documentary, The Problem with Apu, has been making waves since 2017. He also co-hosts the podcast The Untitled Kondabolu Brothers Podcast with his younger brother. Website

QUASI

Portland indie legends Quasi was formed in 1993 by Janet Weiss and Sam Coomes and has spent the last thirty years touring the world and releasing ten albums, including this year's Breaking the Balls of History. Concurrently, Janet (who Rolling Stone called "a drum goddess") was a longtime member of Sleater-Kinney, while she also recorded and/or toured with Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Bright Eyes, the Shins, Elliott Smith, the Go-Betweens, and others. Sam has worked with Elliott Smith, Built to Spill, Jandek, the Go-Betweens, and others, and has toured and recorded as a solo artist. The band was inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame in 2017.

Patricia Reser Center for the Arts • Beaverton Oregon

Show starts at 7:30pm. $35 General Admission (after fees), $25 Student & Under 35 (after fees)

Patricia Reser Center for the Arts Health and Building Policies are available here.

* This show is not included in our Portland Season pass.

LINDY WEST

Lindy West is a former contributing opinion writer for the New York Times and the author of “Shit, Actually: The The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema”, as well as the New York Times bestselling memoir “Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman” and the essay collection “The Witches Are Coming”. Her work has also appeared in This American Life, The Guardian, Cosmopolitan, GQ, Vulture, Jezebel, and others. She is the co-founder of the reproductive rights destigmatization campaign #ShoutYourAbortion. Her latest project, a one woman show titled Every Castle, Ranked, takes her audience on a hilarious, bittersweet, razzle-dazzle journey through her fears, aspirations, disappointments, the history of toilets, and what it means to be a star.

CAMILLE DUNGY

Camille T. Dungy is the author of four collections of poetry and two collections of essays. Her most recent collection, "Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden," recounts her seven-year odyssey to diversify her garden in the predominately white community of Fort Collins, Colorado. BOOKLIST calls it "a significant, beautiful, meditative, and wholly down-to-earth memoir." She has been the finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, a Guggenheim Fellow, an NAACP Image Award nominee, and the winner of an American Book Award. Her poems have been published in Best American Poetry, The 100 Best African American Poems, the Pushcart Anthology, Best American Travel Writing, and over thirty other anthologies.

MARGO CILKER

Margo Cilker has spent the last seven years touring internationally as a critically acclaimed singer-songwriter. Her debut record, “Pohorylle”, was nominated for UK Americana Album of The Year alongside Brandi Carlile and Robert Plant which earned her a slew of festival performances and tours supporting American Aquarium, Hayes Carll, and Drive-By Truckers. Her sophomore album, “Valley of Heart's Delight”, refers to a place she can't return: California’s Santa Clara Valley, as it was known before the orchards were paved over and became more famous for Silicon than apricots. Margo is the fifth generation of Cilker’s born there, and in this 11-song collection, family and nature intertwine as guiding motifs, at once precious and endangered, beautiful and exhausting. Her music, which has been compared to that of Lucinda Williams, Townes Van Zandt, and Gillian Welch, deftly explores the complex, often-shifting terrain where love and loss meet.

Town Hall Seattle - Great Hall • Seattle Washington

Show starts at 7:30pm • Doors Open at 6:30pm
$35 General Admission • $45 Preferred Seating
LIVE WIRE MEMBERS RECEIVE 15% OFF

Town Hall Seattle Health and Building Policies are available here.

* This show is not included in our Portland Season pass.

SAM SANDERS

Sam Sanders is a podcast host, radio personality, and pop culture connoisseur. He was the host of NPR’s It’s Been a Minute. Sanders joined NPR in 2009 as a Kroc Fellow, and in his 12 years there assumed a number of roles. Prior to hosting It’s Been a Minute, Sanders was a key member of NPR’s election unit, where he covered the intersection of culture, pop culture, and politics in the 2016 election, and embedded with the Bernie Sanders campaign for several months. Sam also hosted the weekly pop culture podcast Into It from Vulture and New York Magazine. He is currently the co-host of Vibe Check with Saeed Jones and Zack Stafford.

KRISTI COULTER

Kristi Coulter is the author of Nothing Good Can Come from This, which was a finalist for the 2019 Washington State Book Award. She holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan. She is a former Ragdale Foundation resident and the recipient of a grant from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts. Her work has appeared in The Awl, Marie Claire, Vox, Quartz, and elsewhere. Her second book, Exit Interview: The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career, was published in September 2023. She lives in Seattle, Washington.

EMILY FLAKE

Emily Flake is a staff cartoonist for the New Yorker, a writer, an illustrator, and a performer. She is active in the New York comedy scene, performing a mix of stand-up and cartooning at venues all over the city and beyond. She is also the founder of St. Nell’s, a humor writing residency and teaching institution.

SWAY WILD

San Juan Island, WA-based indie folk-rock duo Mandy Fer and Dave McGraw are back at it with a new sound, and a new name: Sway Wild! Their exceptional vocal harmonies, coupled with Fer’s pioneering electric guitar work, have become a vehicle to carry them around the world, sharing stages with the likes of Iron & Wine, Lake Street Dive, and Watchhouse. Sway Wild’s infectious sound explores the corners of rock, pop, funk, worldbeat, and folk, but at its nucleus it is undeniably a music full of joy. It can squeeze the heart in your chest, it can draw tears from your eyes, and it can force you to get up and move your body; over and over, it somehow manages to do all three at once. Mandy Fer also tours as the lead guitarist for Grammy nominated Allison Russell and recently performed with Brandi Carlile and Jason Isbell.

Get ready for the most delectable, delightful, and outrageously pants-focused night of the year! 

Our very special guest for the night is powerhouse standup comedian and The Late Late Show head writer IAN KARMEL. 

Plus Live Wire's House Band will be jamming, featuring live karaoke from Luke & Elena! 

You'll be treated to special cocktails, amazing appetizers and desserts,, and the hottest pants competition in town.

Join us for an unforgettable night celebrating and supporting the independent public radio show that brings Portland to the world… and the world to Portland! 

Tickets are $100 and include 2 drink tickets & 2 raffle tickets!

Tickets are limited. Reserve yours now!

Live Wire Radio is a non-profit organization and all donations are tax-deductible.

Show starts at 7:30pm • Doors Open at 6:30pm
$30 General Admission • $45 Preferred Seating
LIVE WIRE MEMBERS RECEIVE 15% OFF

SAFIYA SINCLAIR

Safiya Sinclair was born and raised in Montego Bay, Jamaica. She is the author of the memoir How to Say Babylon, the stunning story of her struggle to break free of her rigid Rastafarian upbringing, ruled by her father’s strict patriarchal views and repressive control of her childhood, to find her own voice as a woman and poet. Publisher’s Weekly calls it “a tour de force” and Kirkus Review writes that the book is “more than catharsis; this is a memoir as liberation.” She is also the author of the poetry collection Cannibal, winner of a Whiting Writers’ Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Metcalf Award, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Poetry, the Phillis Wheatley Book Award, and the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry. Website

R. ERIC THOMAS

R. Eric Thomas is the bestselling author of Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America, a Lambda Literary Award finalist, and the YA novel Kings of B’more, a Stonewall Honor book. Both books were also featured as Read with Jenna book-club picks on Today. He is also a television writer (Apple TV+’s Dickinson, FX’s Better Things), a Lambda Literary Award-winning playwright, and the long-running host of The Moth in Philadelphia. For four years, he was a senior staff writer at ELLE online, where he wrote the popular “Eric Reads the News” column. His latest book, “Congratulations, The Best Is Over,” is a collection of heartening, deeply relatable, and laugh-out-loud essays about what happens after happily ever after. Website

J. WORTHAM

J Wortham is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine and co-host of the podcast ‘Still Processing.’ They occasionally publish thoughts on culture, technology and wellness in a newsletter. J is the proud editor of the visual anthology “Black Futures,” a 2020 Editor's choice by The New York Times Book Review, along with Kimberly Drew, from One World. J is also currently working on a book about the body and dissociation for Penguin Press. J Wortham is also a sound healer, reiki practitioner, herbalist, and community care worker oriented towards healing justice and liberation.

NO-NO BOY

No-No Boy tells stories rooted in years of research and relationship-building, made vibrant and profound through a rich congregation of instrumental, environmental, and electronically manipulated sounds from Asia and America. The project developed as the central component of Julian Saporiti’s PhD at Brown University, drawing on years of fieldwork and research on Asian American history to write folk songs with uncommon empathy and remarkable protagonists: prisoners at Japanese American internment camps who started a jazz band, Vietnamese musicians turned on to rock ‘n’ roll by American troops, a Cambodian American painter who painted only the most beautiful landscapes of his war-torn home. Along the way he started to draw on his own family’s history, including his mother’s escape from Vietnam during the war. His 2021 album 1975 was called "a remarkably powerful and moving album,” by Folk Alley and “gentle, catchy and accessible folk songs that feel instantly familiar," by NPR. His third album, "Empire Electric", further examines narratives of imperialism, identity, and spirituality, and is being released by Smithsonian Folkways this fall.

Hult Center for the Performing Arts • Eugene Oregon

Show starts at 8:00pm. $45 Preferred Seating and $34 General Admission

Hult Center for the Performing Arts Health and Building Policies are available here.

* This show is not included in our Portland Season pass.

APARNA NANCHERLA

Aparna Nancherla is an established comedian, actor, and writer who performs all over the place. Her book of personal essays, Unreliable Narrator, will be out on September 19, 2023, from Viking Press. Aparna's had half-hour comedy specials on both Netflix and Comedy Central, as well as making multiple appearances on late night. She can currently be seen on The Drop, Lopez Vs. Lopez, Search Party, and Space Force, among a myriad of other guest appearances. Aparna’s voice can be heard in many animated series including The Great North, Bob's Burgers, and Bojack Horseman. She was a series regular on Comedy Central’s Corporate and she made her feature debut in the Paul Feig movie, A Simple Favor. Aparna's also written for Mythic Quest, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and Totally Biased With W. Kamau Bell. Most importantly, she is available for couch sitting.

NOTE: Aparna will be signing books after the show for anyone who purchases a copy via Tsunami books. Books will also be available for sale on-site.

AVERY TRUFELMAN

Avery Trufelman is the host and creator of Articles Of Interest, a podcast about fashion for people who think they don't care about fashion. Previously she hosted the podcast for The Cut from New York Magazine, and was a longtime staff producer on 99% Invisible.

ANIS MOJGANI

Anis Mojgani is the 10th Poet Laureate of Oregon. A two-time individual champion of the National Poetry Slam and winner of the international World Cup Poetry Slam, his work has appeared on HBO, NPR, and in the pages of The New York Times. The author of six books of poetry, an opera libretto, and a forthcoming children’s picture book, his latest is titled The Tigers, They Let Me. Originally from New Orleans, Anis lives in Portland, Oregon where he serves on the board of the organization, Literary Arts, and can be found making art in his studio and occasionally reading poems from out its window at sunset to others.

OLIVE KLUG

A key player in the new wave of contemporary folk singers, Olive Klug makes earnest, queer acoustic folk music with the central goal of allowing listeners to tap into their feelings. Self-styled after genre icons like Joni Mitchell and Brandi Carlile, Olive is known for their beautiful tone and vividly honest storytelling. Their sound is reminiscent of the ‘Golden Age of American Folk Music’, but with a uniquely modern lyrical sensibility.

Show starts at 7:30pm • Doors Open at 6:30pm
$30 General Admission • $45 Preferred Seating
LIVE WIRE MEMBERS RECEIVE 15% OFF
COVID-19 and General Ticket Information is available HERE.

PAUL F. TOMPKINS

Comedian, actor, and writer Paul F. Tompkins is nothing short of a comedic gem and podcast royalty. Alongside being an absolute Live Wire fan-favorite, PFT has appeared on over two hundred episodes of Comedy Bang! Bang!, and hosts the wildly popular shows The Neighborhood Listen and Spontaneanation, among others. He and his wife, the actor Janie Haddad Tompkins, co-created the podcast Stay F. Homekins. Full of good ideas and gut-busting jokes, Tompkins is also a bit of a TV star! His TV credits include more than two dozen appearances on HBO’s Mr. Show, and he is the voice of Mr. Peanutbutter on the hit Netflix animated series Bojack Horseman. Website

SARAFINA EL-BADRY NANCE

Sarafina El-Badry Nance is an Egyptian-American astrophysicist, analog astronaut, and women’s health advocate. She has been awarded fellowships by the National Science Foundation and her work has been featured by the BBC, NPR, National Geographic, and more. Sarafina is one of Forbes’ “30 Inspirational Women” and was on Forbes’ list of “30 Under 30” and the Arab American Foundation’s “40 Under 40.” She lives in Berkeley, California, with her partner and their dog, Comet. Sarafina’s latest book is Starstruck: A Memoir of Astrophysics and Finding Light in the Dark. Website

GARY GULMAN

Gary Gulman is one of the most popular touring comics, selling out theaters nationwide including Carnegie Hall. He has been a guest on every major late-night comedy program. Gulman’s four comedy specials include HBO's The Great Depresh, a highly acclaimed look at mental illness. In 2019 he appeared in the international blockbuster Joker. He has a recurring role on the Hulu comedy series Life & Beth. A product of Boston, Gulman was previously a scholarship college football player, an accountant, and a high-school teacher. Misfit is his first book. Website

FAMILY WORSHIP CENTER

Family Worship Center specializes in a strain of redemptive, 1970s-styled rock n’ roll that recalls the Rolling Stones, Leon Russell, The Band, and Delaney & Bonnie. The band formed in 2017 in Nashville, Tennessee founded by prophetic visionary, singer-songwriter and keyboardist Krissberg, but it has since relocated to Portland, Oregon. The Family’s latest offering—it’s first long player—Kicked Out Of The Garden, features a core band of devoted musicians, and was produced by Portland go-to producer Cameron Spies (Spoon Benders, Shivas) who specializes in what he calls “mid-fi.” Kicked Out Of The Garden was tracked in Portland with additional recording done in Philadelphia and Ukraine. Website

Show starts at 7:30pm • Doors Open at 6:30pm
$30 General Admission • $45 Preferred Seating
LIVE WIRE MEMBERS RECEIVE 15% OFF
COVID-19 and General Ticket Information is available HERE.

KEN JENNINGS

Ken Jennings used to be an anonymous Salt Lake City software engineer, but almost overnight he became a nerd folk icon via his record-breaking six-month streak on the TV quiz show Jeopardy! In his 75 appearances on the show, Ken won 74 games and $2.52 million, both American game show records. Barbara Walters named him one of the ten most fascinating people of the year, and Slate magazine dubbed him "the Michael Jordan of trivia, the Seabiscuit of geekdom." Since his Jeopardy! streak ended, Ken has become a best-selling author. His books include Brainiac, about the phenomenon of trivia in American culture, Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac, the biggest American trivia book ever assembled, Maphead, about his lifelong love of geography, and Because I Said So!: The Truth Behind the Myths, Tales, and Warnings Every Generation Passes Down Its Kids. His latestet book, 100 Places to See After You Die, is a "bucket list" travel book filled with destinations that can only be reached after death! Website • Twitter

JAMIE LOFTUS

Emmy award-nominated writer and comedian Jamie Loftus may still have three of her baby teeth, but now she also has Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs, her debut book that is part travelogue, part culinary history, all capitalist critique AND all good! Before her deep-dive into the history of American meats, she wrote and starred in her own web series for Comedy Central, and regularly works on viral videos for Super Deluxe. As for her comedy, it often borders on performance art: she has dated an American Girl doll, sold “Shrek nudes” on Etsy to raise money for Planned Parenthood, and attempted to eat a copy of David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest. Furthermore, she is the host and creator of three critically-acclaimed iHeartRadio podcasts: My Year in Mensa, Lolita Podcast, and Aack Cast. Along with fellow comedian Caitlin Durante, she co-hosts The Bechdel Cast, a weekly podcast about the representation of women in film. Website • Instagram

DEMI ADEJUYIGBE

Demi Adejuyigbe is a writer, filmmaker, comedian, performer, and a Live Wire favorite. While most know him as a co-host of the comedy podcasts Gilmore Guys and Punch Up the Jam, or as the creator behind the 21st of September video series, he also was a digital producer on Comedy Central's @midnight, and has written for The New Yorker, The Guardian, Pitchfork, Marvel, Cartoon Network, MTV, The Late Late Show with James Corden, and The Amber Ruffin Show, as well as episodes of the Marvel TV series New Warriors. He is a writer/supervising producer on the animated Apple+ series Strange Planet. He co-hosts the monthly comedy show Everything’s Great at Dynasty Typewriter. Website • Twitter

HÉCTOR TOBAR

Self-described writer about town and opinionator, Héctor Tobar, is the author of six books published in fifteen languages, including the critically acclaimed, New York Times bestseller: Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine and the Miracle That Set Them Free. His newest book, Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of Latino decodes the meaning of "Latino" as a racial and ethnic identity in the modern United States using Tobar's personal experiences as the son of Guatemalan immigrants and the stories told to him by his Latinx students. Deep Down Dark was also adapted into the film The 33, starring Antonio Banderas, and his short fiction has appeared in Best American Short Stories, Noir, Zyzzyva, and Slate. He is also a professor and has written for or been a contributing editor at multiple award-winning magazines. Website • Twitter

ISABEAU WAIA’U WALKER

The vision for her music is clear and thought provoking, and Isabeau Waia'u Walker often expresses her vision through her master storytelling. The authenticity of her musical presentation as a performer and storyteller taps into human emotions and bonds her with the listeners and audiences in front of her. Isabeau worked as a high school teacher for over a decade while she made music, slowly amassing an impressive YouTube subscribership. She then orchestrated an early retirement from education to redirect attention to music, allowing her to tour as a member of Y La Bamba and to record her EP, Better Metric. Her full length album Body, recorded at The Center for Sound, Light and Color Therapy with bandmate and producer Ryan Oxford continues to highlight the tensions of the stretches and contractions nested in Isabeau's core which then reverberate through the layers of her product: storytelling, collaboration, presentation, music. Website • Twitter

Show starts at 7:30pm • Doors Open at 6:30pm
$30 General Admission • $45 Preferred Seating
LIVE WIRE MEMBERS RECEIVE 15% OFF
COVID-19 and General Ticket Information is available HERE.

ARI SHAPIRO

Ari Shapiro is a beloved American radio journalist. He became one of four rotating hosts on NPR's flagship drive-time program All Things Considered, and served as the White House correspondent and international correspondent based in London for NPR. The Advocate magazine has named Ari Shapiro one of its "40 under 40" LGBT leaders, and Out magazine included him in its "Out 100" list of the most influential LGBT people in America. He has written a stirring memoir-in-essays that is also a lover letter to journalism. In his first book, The Best Strangers in the World: Stories From a Life Spent Listening, Shapiro takes us around the globe to reveal the stories behind narratives that are sometimes heartwarming, sometimes heartbreaking, but always poignant. He details his time traveling on Air Force One with President Obama, or following the path of Syrian refugees fleeing war, or learning from those fighting for social justice both at home and abroad. He has also been known to burst into song and has performed with the musical group Pink Martini. Website • Twitter

JENA FRIEDMAN

Jena Friedman is the funniest "not funny" comedian, filmmaker, and creative cracking jokes this decade. She is the creator of AMC’s Indefensible, a true crime inspired TV series, Adult Swim's Soft Focus with Jena Friedman, and has also worked on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Late Show with David Letterman. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, ARTNET, and The Guardian while her witty and bold debut essay collection, Not Funny: Essays on Life, Comedy, Culture, Et Cetera highlights her ability to work the line between humor and discomfort in spellbinding style. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and won a Writer’s Guild of America award for her work on Borat 2: Subsequent Movie Film. Website • Twitter

BLACK BELT EAGLE SCOUT

This land runs through Katherine Paul’s blood, the singer-songwriter behind the musical project Black Belt Eagle Scout. For Paul, when the land calls, you listen. Paul grew up in a small Indian reservation, the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, surrounded by family focused on native drumming, singing, and arts. With the support of her relatives and a handful of bootleg Hole and Nirvana VHS tapes, Paul taught herself how to play guitar and drums as a teenager before moving to Portland at the age of seventeen, but to make her latest full length album, The Land, The Water, The Sky, she made the journey from Portland back to the Skagit River, back to the cedar trees that stand tall and shrouded in fog, back to Swinomish. Her music is now a love letter to indigenous strength and healing, and a story of hope, as it details the joy of returning. There is a throughline of story in every song, a remembrance of knowledge and teachings, a gratitude of wisdom passed down and carried. In her songs, Katherine Paul has channeled that feeling of being held. Website • Twitter

SCOTT AUKERMAN

The man, the myth, and the very funny legend Scott Aukerman is the host of Comedy Bang! Bang!, a podcast featuring today's funniest comedians, and now he is also the author of a book of the same title that brings the beloved and hilarious podcast characters onto the page. Alongside his renown hosting, he is the co-creator and director of the web series Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis, which was expanded into a feature film for Netflix. Aukerman also created, hosted, wrote, and produced the parody talk show Comedy! Bang! Bang!, which aired on IFC for five seasons and is, in fact, not the same as the podcast (we promise). He began his career as a writer and performer on the HBO sketch comedy show Mr. Show with Bob and David. Website • Twitter

Patricia Reser Center for the Arts • Beaverton Oregon

Show starts at 7:30pm. $35 General Admission (after fees), $25 Student & Under 35 (after fees)

Patricia Reser Center for the Arts Health and Building Policies are available here.

Guest lineup will be announced soon!

* This show is not included in our Portland Season pass.

MOHANAD ELSHIEKY

Mohanad Elshieky is a New York-based comedian who is a complete joy to listen to. He also know how to get down to business! He has made his national tv debut on Conan, has been featured on Comedy Central, and toured with the beloved POP UP Magazine. He has appeared in an episode of Epix’s “Unprotected Sets” and was listed as one of Thrillist’s "50 Best Undiscovered Comics." Mohanad, who most recently worked as a digital producer on Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, has a special skill for making you laugh at the seemingly unlaughable. The Libyan-born comedian combines a deceptively laid-back demeanor with his whip-smart perspective on politics and culture. The Portland Mercury called him “an undisputed genius of comedy,” and he's been featured on podcasts such as Lovett or Leave It, Pod Save The People and Harmontown. Elshieky zeroes in on topics that seem off limits - then surprises you with how hard you’re laughing. Website • Instagram

JOSÉ OLIVAREZ

José Olivarez is a literary star on the rise and the son of Mexican immigrants. His debut book of poems, Citizen Illegal, was a finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Award and a winner of the 2018 Chicago Review of Books Poetry Prize. It was named a top book of 2018 by the Adroit Journal, NPR, and the New York Public Library. Along with Felicia Chavez and Willie Perdomo, he co-edited the poetry anthology The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext, and his latest collection of poetry Promises of Gold, translated into Spanish by poet David Ruano, has already been described as "visceral and moving." When he's not writing, he cohosts the poetry podcast The Poetry Gods. Website • Instagram

TIMOTHY EGAN

Timothy Egan is a literary superstar. He is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and the author of eight books, most recently The Immortal Irishman, a New York Times bestseller. Furthermore, his acclaimed book on the Dust Bowl, The Worst Hard Time, won a National Book Award for nonfiction and was named a New York Times Editors' Choice, a New York Times Notable Book, a Washington State Book Award winner, and a Book Sense Book of the Year Honor Book. Egan returns to the literary scene with his latest book, A Fever in the Heartland, which is a historical thriller that investigates and unravels the Ku Klux Klan's rise to power and the woman who stopped them. In his free time, he writes a weekly opinion column for The New York Times. Website • Twitter

JENNY CONLEE

Jenny Conlee, the multi-instrumentalist best known for her 23-year tenure as a member of indie icons The Decemberists, is stepping once more to center stage with the release of Tides: Pieces for Accordion and Piano. The humble yet deeply emotional album of instrumentals finds Conlee pulling from her vast well of influences and knowledge to work in a more neo-classical mode. Written during a week-long artist’s retreat on the coast of Washington State, Conlee found inspiration within the natural environment she was surrounded by: the ocean, sand, dune grass, wind, and a hawk she spotted hunting along the beach. The finished compositions are like an oil portrait of a seaside scene — multi-colored, richly textured, and able to draw on sense memories buried deep within the mind and body. Website • Twitter

Show starts at 7:30pm • Doors Open at 6:30pm
$30 General Admission • $45 Preferred Seating
LIVE WIRE MEMBERS RECEIVE 15% OFF
COVID-19 and General Ticket Information is available HERE.

LAURA CHINN

Laura Chinn is a writer, comedian, actress, and director who has established herself as a creative mind to watch through her extensive catalog of work across multiple different mediums. Her debut memoir, Acne, follows Chinn as she hilariously remembers her struggle of growing up on the west coast of Florida as a mixed-race girl whose appearance doesn’t necessarily match her identity. Chinn recounts her life with a combination of laugh-out-loud recollections and heart-wrenching moments of introspection and self-love that expand beyond the typical memoir. Other themes in her work include humor, beauty, insecurities, and abandonment. Chinn also created and starred in Pop TV's beloved comedy Florida Girls. She was previously a producer and writer on the popular Fox series The Mick, a writer on Grandfathered, and made her directorial debut with Suncoast, a movie drama based on her adolescence. Website • Instagram

JENNY ODELL

Jenny Odell is a multi-disciplinary artist and author whose work utilizes close observation as a driving force. Her first book was the New York Times bestseller, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy which reads like a self-help manual turned political manifesto and was named one the best books of the year by TIME, NPR, and others. Odell returns with another attention-grabbing book titled Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock. In dazzling, subversive, and deeply hopeful ways, Odell shows the reader in her latest book how to think past the ticking time bomb of capitalism. Alongside her booklength projects, she taught digital art at Stanford Unviersity and her visual art has been exhibited around the world. Her writing has also appeared in The Atlantic, New York Times, Sierra Magazine, and more. Website • Twitter

RECKLESS SON

Reckless Son is the musical project of New York-based musician Matt Butler, who has travelled across the country performing in prisons. He took his experiences on the road and penned a one man show organized into nine chapters, featuring a collection of music and monologues painting vivid pictures of the people he met and stories he heard inside these facilities. “People who have lost everything or have had everything taken from them are often truly in touch with what matters most,” Butler said during the show’s final stretch, delivering the line as songwriter who visits prisons not only to sing, but to listen, too. Filled with Americana songs inspired by Woody Guthrie, Townes Van Zandt, and other troubadours, Reckless Son is more than a show. It’s a calling. A service. A pledge to, as Butler puts it, “bring healing through the arts.” Website • Instagram

Town Hall Seattle - Great Hall • Seattle Washington

Show starts at 7:30pm • Doors Open at 6:30pm
$35 General Admission • $45 Preferred Seating
LIVE WIRE MEMBERS RECEIVE 15% OFF

Town Hall Seattle Health and Building Policies are available here.

* This show is not included in our Portland Season pass.

ADAM GOPNIK

New York Times best-selling author Adam Gopnik is a writer that can do anything — and do it well. He has published over nine books including the #1 national bestseller Paris to the Moon. His latest book, The Real Work: On the Mystery of Mastery explores the fundamental question of "how do we learn—and master—a new skill?" with exquisite, probing prose. Gopnik has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1986 while remaining an active lecturer, lyricist, and libretto writer for many musical projects. He has won the National Magazine Award for Essays and for Criticism three times, as well as the George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting, and the Canadian National Magazine Award Gold Medal for arts writing. His work has been anthologized in “Best American Essays", “Best American Travel Writing,” “Best American Sports Writing,” “Best American Food Writing,” and “Best American Spiritual Writing.” Website • Twitter

KELSEY MCKINNEY

Kelsey McKinney is a dynamo staff writer and co-owner of Defector media, an employee-owned sports and culture website. She hosts the popular podcast Normal Gossip, which "delivers juicy, strange, funny, and utterly banal gossip about people you'll never know and never meet" while her first book, God Spare the Girls, a novel packed with religious family secrets and sisterhood, was published to rave reviews. More of her creative work and reporting has been widely published and appears in The New York Times, GQ, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and Cosmopolitan, among many others. Website • Twitter

BRENDA SHAUGHNESSY

Brenda Shaughnessy is an Okinawa-Irish American poet whose poetic sensibilities are lauded for both their technical and emotional potency. She's the author of seven poetry collections, including The Octopus Museum, which was a New York Times 2019 Notable Book, and Liquid Flesh: New and Selected Poems. Her most recent collection,Tanya, pays tribute to Shaughnessy's literary heritgae of women writers and mentors while grappling with the ongoing mysteries of love, art, and loss among other themes. Recipient of a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and the James Laughlin Award, her poems have appeared in Best American Poetry, The Nation, The New Yorker, Paris Review, and elsewhere. She is also a Professor of English and Creative Writing at Rutgers University-Newark. Website • Twitter

WHO IS SHE?

Known for writing songs that are both "spunky and violently catchy" (Vice), Who Is She? is a Seattle-based indie supergroup featuring members of Tacocat, Chastity Belt, and Lisa Prank. The talented trio was first started as a song-writing and friendship project based on the missed connection ads when Robin Edwards (Lisa Prank) and Bree McKenna (Tacocat) were living in bedrooms next door to each other at legendary Spruce House. The two Seattle music celebs then enlisted their friend, Julia Shapiro (Chastity Belt), to play the drums. They released their debut record, Seattle Gossip, on Father/Daughter Records and have a new album on the horizon. Twitter

Show starts at 7:30pm • Doors Open at 6:30pm
$30 General Admission • $45 Preferred Seating
LIVE WIRE MEMBERS RECEIVE 15% OFF
COVID-19 and General Ticket Information is available HERE.

JOSEPH EARL THOMAS

Described as "brilliant and brilliantly different" (Kiese Laymon), Joseph Earl Thomas is a multi-genre writer on a mission. His newest book, Sink, a coming-of-age memoir that investiagates an unsteady childhood and the saving grace of geek culture, is yet another example of Joseph's writerly prowess. His other creative work has appeared in renowned literary journals such as VQR, N+1, Gulf Coast, The Offing, and The Kenyon Review, while an excerpt from Sink won the 2020 Chautauqua Janus Prize. Alongside his publications, Joseph has recieved fellowships from Fulbright, VONA, Tin House, Kimbilio, & Breadloaf, though he is now the Anisfield-Wolf Fellow at the CSU Poetry Center. An unstoppable literary force, he’s currently writing the novel God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer, and a collection of stories: Leviathan Beach, among other oddities. He is also an associate faculty member at The Brooklyn Institute for Social Research, as well as Director of Programs at Blue Stoop, a literary hub for Philly writers. Website • Twitter

STEPHANIE ANNE JOHNSON

Stephanie Anne Johnson is a special musical talent. They can bring a crowded dive bar to a collective hush. They can bring one of the biggest audiences on the planet to a standing ovation. They can even don a cowboy hat and sing over a slide as old timers weep. Stephanie's voice wowed judges on The Voice, and it’s no surprise that Johnson is so affecting with a mantra like, “find your joy and go there.” Their music, which is steeped in all that’s American, expresses the pain of the past, the roots of home, and the hope that hard work will lead to proper reward. Stephanie Anne Johnson has opened for acts that include political figure Bernie Sanders, and artists such as Mavis Staples, Chaka Khan, and Ani DiFranco. Website • Listen

DESSA

Dessa is a writer and touring musician who splits her time between Minneapolis, Manhattan, and a tour van cruising at 6 miles per hour above the posted limit. She works across genres, writing essays (which have appeared in The New York Times and National Geographic Traveler), memoir (My Own Devices was named a best book of the year by NPR), and poetry. Her first poetry collection, Tits on the Moon is made up of staged poems she often performs live at her shows as well as a short essay on craft. As a musician, she contributed to The Hamilton Mixtape and has recorded ballads, rap bangers, and a live album with the Grammy-winning Minnesota Orchestra. Website • Twitter

DANA SCHWARTZ

Dana Schwartz is writer who can (and does) do it all! She is a television writer and the creator of the number-one charting history podcast Noble Blood which investigates the juicy history of lesser known royals. As a journalist and critic, Dana has written for Entertainment Weekly, Marie Claire, Glamour, GQ, Cosmopolitan, Vanity Fair and more. She's also published five books including Choose Your Own Disaster, The White Man's Guide to White Male Writers of the Western Canon, and the #1 New York Times and #1 Indie best seller Anatomy: A Love Story which she is following with a highly anticipated sequel Immortality: A Love Story. Website • Twitter

Hult Center for the Performing Arts • Eugene Oregon

Show starts at 8:00pm. $30 General Admission

Hult Center for the Performing Arts Health and Building Policies are available here.

* This show is not included in our Portland Season pass.

LAUREN FLESHMAN

Lauren Fleshman is an athletic force to be reckoned with. As one of the most decorated American distance runners of all time, having won five NCAA championships at Stanford and two national championships, her professional sports career is hard to beat. Alongside her successful history as an athlete, Fleshman is also a talented writer. Her debut book Good for a Girl: My Life Running in a Man's World is part memoir and part manifesto that follows the story of how she fell in love with running and the struggles of being a professional female athlete. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times and Runner’s World. She is the brand strategy advisor for Oiselle, a fitness apparel company for women, and is also the co-founder of Picky Bars, a natural food company. Website • Twitter

ERICA BERRY

Portland-based writer Erica Berry knows when to cry wolf on the page, and she does so beautifully. In her debut book Wolfish, a kaleidoscopic blend of memoir, environmental writing, and societal criticism, Berry studies the cultural legacy of the wolf and the complex relationship between humans and wolves. She was the winner of the 2018 Steinberg Essay Prize and a 2018 AWP Intro Journals Award, and has received multiple grants, fellowships, and residencies for her writing. She also teaches writing workshops at Literary Arts, the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, the New York Times Student Journeys, and Oxford Academia. Her essays and journalism have appeared in The Guardian, Literary Hub, and The New York Times Magazine, among many others. Website • Twitter

ABBY GOVINDAN

Abby Govindan is not like other girls: she likes pink, loves iced coffee from Dunkin, and prides herself on only dating guys taller than her. When the 25 year old comedian and writer from Houston, Texas is not uploading cute selfies on Instagram, you can see her performing stand-up all over the country. Since pursuing comedy 5 years ago, she has amassed a following of over 250,000 people across all social media platforms, but she wants you to know that the fame hasn't changed her one bit. She is currently touring the country with her hour How To Embarrass Your Immigrant Parents. Website • Twitter

BAROQUE BETTY

Commentators who like to keep things neatly slotted into place have struggled with defining the musical stylings of Baroque Betty, precisely because she defies simple categorization. Though the string-laden melodies occasionally anchor her in the territories of folk, bluegrass, or minim­ali­st rock, she's more at home as a wanderer, as a musician crafting sound from the cracks in-between. It’s from these quirky, deeper, sometimes darker places that Baroque Betty’s voice reaches up, takes you by the hand, and sweeps you along on an entrancing musical journey. Baroque Betty has built a dedicated fan base as well as winning much admiration amongst prominent peers, including one of the leading figures in modern-day bluegrass – Woody Platt. The lead singer of Steep Canyon Rangers describes Betty's sound as "striking" and "spectacular." Website • Instagram

MOOD AREA 52

Accompanying Baroque Betty are the sensational, local superstars Mood Area 52. They're a Eugene based creative collective and band that writes and performs major and minor original songs, plays classic film soundtracks, accompanies other artists, and has been supporting the local arts scene through sweat equity since 1998. Current active members include Michael Roderick, Amy Danziger, Billy Barnett, Don Elkington, Julia Frantz, Corwin Bolt, Dan Schmid, and Kee Zublin. Website

Show starts at 7:30pm • Doors Open at 6:30pm
$30 General Admission • $45 Preferred Seating
LIVE WIRE MEMBERS RECEIVE 15% OFF
COVID-19 and General Ticket Information is available HERE.

CHERYL STRAYED

Alongside being a Portland gem, Cheryl Strayed is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, which has sold more than 4 million copies worldwide and was made into an Oscar-nominated major motion picture. Her bestselling book Tiny Beautiful Things, a book of essays compiled from her anonymously written advice column "Dear Sugar" is being adapted for a Hulu television show, and was previously adapted into a play that has been staged in theaters around the world. Strayed is also the author of the critically acclaimed debut novel, Torch, and the bestselling collection Brave Enough, which brings together more than one hundred of her quotes. Her award-winning essays and short stories have been published in The Best American Essays, the New York Times, the Washington Post Magazine, Vogue, Salon, and elsewhere. She has hosted two hit podcasts, Sugar Calling and Dear Sugars. Website • Twitter

ILIANA REGAN

From foraging on the family farm to running her own Michelin-starred restaurant, chef and writer Iliana Regan is unstoppable. Already a National Book Award nominee from her first memoir, Burn the Place, Iliana Regan's newest memoir, Fieldwork, investigates her heritage as a forager and how her complex gender identity informs her acclaimed work as a chef and her profound experience of the natural world. She runs the Milkweed Inn bed and breakfast in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and in addition to working as the chef and owner of Milkweed Inn, she earned an MFA in writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Website • Twitter

MARGO CILKER

Margo Cilker is a singer-songwriter from Eastern Oregon who made NPR’s list of “11 Oregon Artists to Watch in 2021.” For the last six years, she has toured internationally, all across the US, and remains a staple on the independent festival circuit. Her debut record Pohorylle, which came out under the Portland label Fluff and Gravy, traverses the geography of Cilker’s memories—a touring musician’s tapestry of dive bars and breathtaking natural beauty. Her music, which has been compared to that of Lucinda Williams, Townes Van Zandt, and Gillian Welch, deftly explores the complex, often-shifting terrain where love and loss meet. Website • Twitter

JOEY CLIFT

Joey Clift is a comedian, TV writer, and enrolled Cowlitz Indian Tribal Member. With a knack for humor, his writing credits include Spirit Rangers on Netflix, New Looney Tunes on Cartoon Network and Molly of Denali on PBS. He also created, wrote, and directed the Comedy Central digital series Gone Native which delves into the weird microaggressions Native people often deal with, and his award winning short films have screened everywhere from Just For Laughs to The Smithsonian Museum. But his finest work is being the founder of LA Underground Cat Network, which is a 15,000-member strong Facebook group for Los Angeles comedians to share pictures of their cats. To be clear, he doesn't hate dogs, but he's really more of a cat guy. Website • Twitter

Show starts at 7:30pm • Doors Open at 6:30pm
$30 General Admission • $45 Preferred Seating
LIVE WIRE MEMBERS RECEIVE $5 OFF
COVID-19 and General Ticket Information is available HERE.

SARA SCHAEFER

Sara Schaefer is a critically acclaimed stand-up comedian, writer, and producer. She was the co-host of MTV’s late night show Nikki & Sara Live, and her half-hour comedy special debuted in November 2019 on Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents. She won two Emmy awards for her work at Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and won a WGA Award for her work on Ed Helms’ Comedy Central special The Fake News with Ted Nelms. She has also written for numerous programs as well as her own digital series Woman Online. Her stand up show Little White Box sold-out at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe Festival while Sara’s scripted web series Day Job was named "one of 100 Best Web Series" by TimeOut New York. In 2020, she also published her first book, Grand, with Gallery Books, and currently hosts a podcast called The Schaefer Shakedown. She lives in Los Angeles. Website • Twitter

LAURA CHINN

Laura Chinn is a writer, comedian and actress who has established herself as a creative mind to watch through her extensive catalog of work across multiple different mediums. Her debut memoir, Acne, follows Chinn as she hilariously remembers her struggle of growing up on the west coast of Florida as a mixed-race girl whose appearance doesn’t necessarily match her identity. Chinn recounts her life with a combination of laugh-out-loud recollections and heart-wrenching moments of introspection and self-love that expand beyond the typical memoir. Other themes in her work include humor, beauty, insecurities, and abandonment. Chinn also created and starred in Pop TV's beloved comedy Florida Girls. She was previously a producer and writer on the popular Fox series The Mick, and a writer on Grandfathered. Website • Instagram

HARI KONDABOLU

As one of Live Wire's very favorite guests, comedian Hari Kondabolu might be the smartest person you laugh at this year. Before becoming a regular on public radio and appearing on NPR's Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me and Midday on WNYC, Hari earned a Masters in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and worked as an immigrant rights organizer in Seattle. Because of his educational background, his comedy is a complex blend of social commentary, honest personal experience, and trenchant political wit. He has released two comedy albums and has performed on Conan, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and The Late Show with David Letterman among others. . His 2018 Netflix special, Warn Your Relatives, made many "Best of" lists, and his critically-acclaimed documentary, The Problem with Apu, has been making waves since 2017. He also co-hosts the podcast The Untitled Kondabolu Brothers Podcast with his younger brother. Website • Twitter

DANIELLE PONDER

For singer-songwriter Danielle Ponder, bravery took the shape of leaving her successful day job working in the public defender’s office to devote herself full-time to sharing her powerful voice with the world. Written and recorded over three years, the singer-songwriter’s mesmerizing debut album, Some of Us Are Brave, is a refreshingly original, shiver-inducing mix of pop, R&B, blues, rock, and moody trip-hop topped by Ponder’s celestial voice. Described as "a singular talent on a meteoric rise” (SPIN) and following her much lauded performances at SXSW and showcases in New York and Los Angeles, Ponder continues to successfully tour. She is also among the 30 new artists in YouTube’s Foundry Class of 2022, a global development program for independent music, that supports indie artists at all stages of their careers. Website • Twitter

Show starts at 7:30pm • Doors Open at 6:30pm
$30 General Admission • $40 Preferred Seating
COVID-19 and General Ticket Information is available HERE.

NORA MCINERNY

Nora McInerny is the best-selling author of the memoirs It's Okay To Laugh (Crying Is Cool Too), No Happy Endings, and The Hot Young Widows Club. Her newest collection of essays Bad Vibes Only, forthcoming from Simon & Schuster in October 2022, is a response to a society that requires our best vibes even on our worst days. It's a reminder that sometimes it is just not possible to live, laugh and love in these conditions (and that’s okay). In essays that revisit her cringey past and anticipate her rapidly approaching future, Nora lays bare her own chaos, inviting us to drop the facade of perfection and embrace the truth: that we are all -- at best -- slightly unhinged. Website • Twitter

J. KENJI LOPEZ-ALT

J. Kenji López-Alt is a chef, parent, and New York Times best-selling author of The Food Lab which won the James Beard Award for General Cooking and International Association of Culinary Professionals’ Book of the Year. He is also the author of Every Night Is Pizza Night, a food-inspired children's storybook illustrated by Gianna Ruggiero. He is a wildly popular New York Times food columnist, and the host of the YouTube video series Kenji’s Cooking Show which has over a million subscribers on YouTube. His newest cookbook, The Wok: Recipes and Techniques was published earlier this year by W. W. Norton & Company. He lives in Seattle, WA with his wife and kids. Website • Twitter

ROSS GAY

Ross Gay is the New York Times best-selling author of The Book of Delights: Essays and four books of poetry. His poetry collection Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude won the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award, the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, and was a finalist for the National Book Award; while his other renown collection of poems Be Holding won the 2021 PEN America Jean Stein Book Award. His newest book, Inciting Joy, an electrifying collection of essays about joy and sorrow, is out October 2022 from Algonquin Books. Alongside writing, he is a founding board member of the Bloomington Community Orchard, a non-profit, free-fruit-for-all food justice and joy project. Gay has received fellowships from Cave Canem, the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He teaches at Indiana University. Website

MADISON CUNNINGHAM

Madison Cunningham is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. Rolling Stone described her music as "a new spin on West Coast folk-rock," and her latest album Revealer, set to release in September 2022, is full of confessions, intimations, and hard truths the Los Angeles based singer-songwriter has learned over her tenure in the music industry. Her past albums titled Who You Are Now and Wednesday (Extended Version) were nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Americana Album and Best Folk Album respectively. She has also toured with Andrew Bird, and feels her songwriting soars when she allows herself to be confident in her idiosyncrasies. Website • Listen

Show starts at 7:30pm • Doors Open at 6:30pm
$30 General Admission • $45 Preferred Seating
LIVE WIRE MEMBERS RECEIVE 15% OFF
COVID-19 and General Ticket Information is available HERE.

GEORGE SAUNDERS

The incredible George Saunders returns to the Live Wire stage with Liberation Day: Stories, a brand new short story collection from Penguin Random House. Over his literary career, Saunder's has written eleven books, winning both the 2017 Man Booker Prize for his novel Lincoln in the Bardo, the 2018 Audie Award for the book’s audio version, and the 2013 Folio Prize for his other fantastic short story collection Tenth of December. But George Saunders is not just a creative writer, but a man of many talents and he has spent time working as a geophysical inspector in Indonesia, a roofer in Chicago, a doorman in Beverly Hills, and as a technical writer in Rochester. Alongside his litany of fascinating jobs, he is one of Time's "100 Most Influential People in the World" and has appeared on The Colbert Report, Late Night with David Letterman, and NPR's All Things Considered. Currently, he teaches creative writing classes at Syracuse University. Website

SILVIA MORENO-GARCIA

Mexican by birth, but Canadian by inclination, Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a best-selling novelist whose world-building chops are a "thing of wonder" (The New York Times). She’s written numerous critically acclaimed novels including Gods of Jade and Shadow, Mexican Gothic, and Velvet Was the Night; her newest novel, The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, is already a showstopper. Set against the backdrop of nineteenth-century Mexico, the novel is a dreamy reimagining of The Island of Doctor Moreau, but like all of Silvia’s novels, it is infused with her knack for unusual adventure and surprising romance. Alongside her fiction writing, Silvia has edited several anthologies and is also the publisher for Innsmouth Free Press. As the winner of the Locus and British Fantasy wards for her work as a novelist and as the recipient of the World Fantasy Award for her work as an editor, she’s a writer that you’ll want to revisit both on and off the page. Website • Twitter

SAEED JONES

Award-winning American poet Saeed Jones is back with Alive at the End of the World, a brand new poetry collection from Coffee House Press. He is the winner of the 2019 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction for his memoir How We Fight For Our Lives and the 2015 PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry for his poetry collection Prelude to Bruises. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, the New Yorker, and GQ magazine among many others. Originally from Memphis Tennessee, he now crafts his work about the complicated affair of being alive from Columbus, Ohio. Website • Twitter

SAMANTA CRAIN

Samantha Crain is a recipient of the Indigenous Music Award and a two-time Native American Music Award winner. Her genre-spanning discography has been critically acclaimed by media outlets such as Rolling Stone, SPIN, Paste, No Depression, NPR, The Guardian, NME, Uncut, and others. Over the past 11 years, Crain has toured both nationally and internationally, and her dynamic shows have showcased both with her ambitiously orchestrated musical numbers and her more intimate folk-leaning solo performances. Website • Twitter • Spotify

Show starts at 7:30pm • Doors Open at 6:30pm
$30 General Admission • $45 Preferred Seating
LIVE WIRE MEMBERS RECEIVE 15% OFF
COVID-19 and General Ticket Information is available HERE.

NABIL AYERS

Nabil Ayers has written about race and music for The New York Times, NPR, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone and GQ. His upcoming memoir My Life in the Sunshine will be published from Penguin/Viking in June 2022, and documents the complex task of building an identity around an absent father. Alongside his literary pursuits, Ayers has run musical campaigns for The National, Big Thief, Grimes, and at the age of twenty-five, opened Seattle's Sonic Boom Records store. Unable to stay off the stage, Ayers has performed as a drummer in several bands, and began his own record label, The Control Group/Valley of Search, which has released music by Cate Le Bon, The Killers, PJ Harvey, his uncle—the jazz musician Alan Braufman—and others. In his free time, Ayers lives with his wife in Brooklyn, NY. Website • Twitter

AUBREY GORDON

Aubrey Gordon started writing under the pseudonym Your Fat Friend in 2016. As Your Fat Friend, she published and wrote anonymously about the cultural realities of moving through the world as a very fat person for four years. Her work has been published in Literary Hub, The New York Times, Vox, SELF, Health, Roxane Gay’s Unruly Bodies, and Jameela Jamil’s IWeigh. She is a regular columnist at SELF Magazine. Her debut book, What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat was released by Beacon Press in November 2020. Today, she co-hosts the podcast Maintenance Phase with Michael Hobbes. Together, the two debunk and decode wellness and weight loss trends. Website • Twitter

CHRIS MEJIA

Chris Mejia is one funny guy. Regarded as a bright up-and-comer as he performs in clubs and showcases all across the West Coast, his comedy has also been featured on the BBC World Service Radio and he has performed at Treefort Music Festival, Bumbershoot, Madison Comedy Week, and more. Alongside his festival performances, he was a Semi-Finalist in the Seattle International Comedy Competition. Chris regularly features for nationally touring comedians and has opened for Chris Redd, Dulce Sloan, Jamali Maddix, Jai Knight, Langston Kerman, and others. Chris is also a writer whose works have been featured on satire sites including Flexx Mag and The Needling. Originally from Florida, Chris Mejia is currently based in Seattle. Website • Twitter

THUNDERSTORM ARTIS

Exceptional singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Thunderstorm Artis is quickly becoming an unmatchable force in the music world. Born into a highly musical family and raised in Hawaii, making meaning within a song has been central to Thunderstorm’s entire life. With his debut EP Haunted released in 2018, and as a finalist on NBC’s The Voice in 2020 and a mainstay at Wanderlust festivals throughout North America, Thunderstorm is a star on the rise. With a vocal styling described as being warm, vibrant, and powerful, his latest body of work is “a genre-bending batch of songs built on both emotionally raw storytelling and incisive soul-searching.” Website • Twitter

Hosted by Luke Burbank and Elena Passarello at the Portland Center Stage Armory, this year’s gala is sure to be an unforgettable evening. The fun includes a special benefit show (see guest details below) and SO much more…

But why is reaching our Fancy Pants fundraising goal of $25,000 so important to us?

Well, Live Wire is an independently produced radio show and a non-profit organization, and for over eighteen years, we have been supported and sustained by YOU: our incredible listeners and Members. Our fundraising goal guarantees that we continue to fulfill our mission: to bring riveting, honest, insightful, and hilarious conversations to public radio and to Portland. In other words, it ensures that we continue to be the Live Wire that you have come to know and love.

But it gets even better. Your ticket to Fancy Pants and any additional money you spend at this special benefit show (did someone say live auction?!) is almost entirely tax-deductible. So come on down to Portland Center Stage Armory on October 4th and support a wonderful arts organization while enjoying a glass of wine, an empanada, and wearing your favorite pair of dazzling pants—and do it all guilt-free.
Tickets
$95 - General Admission
$150 - VIP (includes preferred seating and a swag bag filled with special live guest goodies!)

Tickets are limited. Reserve yours now!

ANIS MOJGANI

Anis Mojgani is the current Poet Laureate of Oregon, but his love for poetry (and sharing it) has brought him to places near and far. A two-time individual champion of the National Poetry Slam and winner of the International World Cup Poetry Slam, Anis has done commissions for the Getty Museum, the Peabody Essex Museum, the Oregon Parks Department, and the Portland Timbers. His work has appeared on HBO, National Public Radio, in the pages of the New York Times, and such journals as Rattle, Platypus, Winter Tangerine, Forklift Ohio, and Bat City Review. The author of five books of poetry and the libretto for the opera Sanctuaries, his first children’s book is forthcoming from Chronicle Books. Originally from New Orleans, Anis currently lives in Portland Oregon.

CASEY PARKS

Casey Parks is a Portland-based reporter for The Washington Post who covers news stories ranging from gender to family issues. Parks was awarded the 2021 J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award for Diary of a Misfit, her upcoming book that combines memoir and journalism to explore the themes of sexuality, identity, otherness, and love. She was previously a reporter for the Jackson, Mississippi Free Press and The Oregonian. Her powerhouse articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Oxford American, ESPN, USA Today, and The Nation.

JIMMIE HERROD

Jimmie Herrod is a Pacific Northwest-based artist and performer who currently resides in Portland, Oregon. He holds a Bachelors of Music degree in music composition and performance from Cornish, and a Masters of Music in Jazz Studies from Portland State University, where he has subsequently taught jazz voice. Jimmie has also worked in Seattle’s lauded musical theater scene at ArtsWest and the 5th Avenue Theater. Recent performance highlights include being a featured soloist with the Oregon Symphony’s showcase in the 2018 TedX series, working with international acts such as ODESZA, and being a Golden Buzzer recipient for the 2021 season of America’s Got Talent. Jimmie is also a regular guest vocalist with Pink Martini, touring throughout the US, Canada, and Europe. In 2018 Jimmie recorded “Exodus”, his first single with Pink Martini, as well the solo album of original works, Falling in Love and Learning to Love Myself.

Live Wire Radio is a non-profit organization and all donations are tax-deductible.

Show starts at 7:30pm • Doors Open at 6:30pm
$30 General Admission • $45 Preferred Seating
LIVE WIRE MEMBERS RECEIVE 15% OFF
COVID-19 and General Ticket Information is available HERE.

MARCELLA ARGUELLO

Marcella Arguello is a stand-up comedian, writer, and actor whose comedy knows no bounds; she eagerly discusses any and every topic that tickles her. From dating short guys - she has no other options at 6’2’’ - to being mistaken for a man, to her Latinx identity, and her take on race and gender, no wild stories and situations she’s gotten herself into is out of reach. Marcella is the host and producer of Women Crush, the hottest and most diverse stand-up show at The Hollywood Improv Lab. Her debut album, The Woke Bully - which debuted at #3 on the Billboard Comedy Charts and was named "One Of The Best Comedy Albums of 2019" by NPR Program Bullseye - is a combination of Marcella’s unique perspective and honesty which captures what it’s like to experience her life. Website • Twitter

GINNY HOGAN

Ginny Hogan is an LA-based writer and stand-up comic. Her new humor collection, I'm More Dateable than a Plate of Refried Beans, is a laugh-out-loud exploration of the ups and downs of modern romance. Forbes named her a “rising star of satire” for her comedy. Hogan's writing has appeared in the New Yorker, Atlantic, New York Times, McSweeney's, and Vulture. Website • Twitter

SONA MOVSESIAN

Over her twelve years of assisting Conan O’Brien, Sona Movsesian has learned a few tips and tricks when it comes to being the world's best assistant...or has she? Through humor, wit, and illustrations, her upcoming book The World's Worst Assistant flips the script on what it means to become an indispensable employee. Movsesian also cohosts Conan’s podcast Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, and stars in a regular IGTV show hosted on @TeamCoco every Friday called “Sona Fixes Your Life.” True to form, Movsesian regularly forgets to put Conan’s appointments in his calendar. She lives in LA with her husband and twin sons. Website • Twitter

BROWN CALCULUS

Brown Calculus is a Gemini musical duo that complicates the sonic expectations of the R&B genre. Voted one of Portland's Best New Bands in 2018, Vaughn Kimmons and Andre Burgos embody a sound that can only be described as a kind of "spacey soul that should be sold in health-and-wellness stores" (Willamette Week). Rooted in the Black ancestral tradition of spiritual jazz, the duo crafts trance-inducing sonic offerings geared to enwrap the listener in love. The band's first EP, Live at the Map Room was, well, recorded live in front of an intimate audience at the Map Room recording studio in Portland, Oregon. Brown Calculus is a synergistic musical project of collaboration and care that you'll want to listen to on repeat. Listen • Instagram