Michelle Wolf Looking Forward to Performing Free Show in Central Park with Trevor Noah and Daily Show Team
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This Sunday the Daily Show team will join host Trevor Noah to give a free stand up show in Central Park as part of New York’s SummerStage series. Ronny Chieng, Jordan Klepper, Desi Lydic, Hasan Minhaj and Roy Wood Jr. along with writer/contributor Michelle Wolf, and executive producer/contributor Adam Lowitt will join Trevor himself performing comedy in the park for The Daily Show with Trevor Noah Stand-Up in the Park.”
This is going to be a gigantic show, and we can’t wait to see it. New Yorkers will get the chance to see eight stars of a beloved late night show on stage all together, performing comedy outside in the park- which is not only out of their element, it’s out of anyone’s element. And it’s free.
While we’re not 100% sure what each of the performers will be doing when they take the stage, it’s a good bet that a good portion of it will be stand up. Before joining the Daily Show, Trevor Noah was already an internationally renowned and brilliant stand up comic, performing at huge venues worldwide. Several members of Noah’s team are also stand up superstars, and everyone has a background performing live comedy. Ronny Chieng has been huge on the Australian stand up scene and in the past few years opened for both Chappelle and C.K., Hasan Minhaj is a major headliner who has a hit one man show that has been touring the US, and Roy Wood Jr. just landed a way overdue spot on Variety’s Top Comics to Watch list– he is hands down one of the funniest guys in stand up today. Adam Lowitt’s name might not sound as familiar to some because after he joined The Daily Show in 2002 as an intern, he’s been busy working his way up to Executive Producer and winning Emmys, but he’s also a great stand up who was chosen to perform on John Oliver’s New York Stand-Up Show, and has been a part of the Just for Laughs New Faces showcase. Desi Lydic and Jordan Klepper have backgrounds in sketch and improv, with Lydic hailing from the famed Groundlings on the West Coast, and Klepper coming out of the UCB.
And then there’s Michelle Wolf, who is having a gigantic year. Not only did she score herself a great gig with the Daily Show, but Louis C.K. just named her one of the 3 best comedians performing today, Sarah Silverman loves her, she wrote for the Oscars, her stand up is amazing, and she’s got a brand new web series on Comedy Central that’s being turned into a pilot for a TV series.
We talked with Wolf about her new job at the Daily Show and the upcoming gig in the park, and she told us she can’t wait to play Central Park, even though she’s not sure yet how it’s all going to work. “I’m not exactly sure how the show is going to be run, but I’m assuming most of us are doing stand up. But yeah, it’s so exciting to do something like that in Central Park, in front of so many people, it’s a neat thing. I love performing in New York, so when you get to perform in a place you’ve never performed in New York before, it’s really cool.”
Michelle became a part of the Daily Show after she and Trevor Noah met at the Comedy Cellar club in New York. “I was writing for Seth, and I do a lot of stand up and I was at the Comedy Cellar. Trevor saw me and the more we talked the more we were like, we think we would really like to work together. It was just kind of a thing that happened and it just fit really well. It’s like when you’re not shopping and all of a sudden you’re like, I love this top.”
Working at the Daily Show is rarely a change of occupation for stand up comedians who join the team and it’s been more of an add on for Wolf who still performs every night in New York- usually about 15-20 shows a week. Wolf says she loves it though. “I basically come to work and then I go straight to go do stand up. And I hang out there to just relax then I go home and I do it all again the next day. The cool thing about what I do is that it is a job, but it’s also what I love to do. So it is work, but also it’s fun.” Wolf says she stays balanced by adding one more thing to her schedule- running. “As long as I can get a run in there at some point, I’m pretty happy. The running thing, that’s just so I don’t go insane,” she said, adding “I’m much better off as a person when I’m very busy then when I’m on my hands.”
Comedy Central presents “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah Stand-Up in the Park,” a live comedy event at SummerStage in Central Park on Sunday, June 26 at 8:00 p.m. The event will feature performances by host Trevor Noah and correspondents Ronny Chieng, Jordan Klepper, Desi Lydic, Hasan Minhaj and Roy Wood Jr. along with writer/contributor Michelle Wolf, and executive producer/contributor Adam Lowitt.
The free Comedy Central event is in partnership with the City Parks Foundation’s SummerStage performing arts festival and held rain or shine on Sunday, June 26 at 8:00 p.m. (gates open at 7:00 p.m.). Admission into the venue is first come, first served and closes once capacity is reached. The SummerStage outdoor venue entrance is located in mid-Central Park at Fifth Avenue and 69th Street.
“The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” airs Mondays-Thursdays at 11:00 p.m. on Comedy Central and is available to stream the following day on thedailyshow.com and the Comedy Central App.
