The big events announced so far are big indeed—TV star Jeff Dunham, New Yorker and NPR favorite David Sedaris, and Knoxville’s own Scruffy City Comedy Festival. But don’t forget the scruffy little comedy scene that offers open mics, improv shows, and local and regional headliners every week all over town.
OCTOBER
Trailer Park Boys: The Still Drunk, High, and Unemployed Tour
Tennessee Theatre (604 S. Gay St.) • Oct. 24 • 8 p.m. • $35-$55
The Canadian reprobates revamp their cult-classic TV show for the stage. Expect harebrained schemes, bad language, booze and drugs, and bad decisions.
Henry Rollins
Bijou Theatre (803 S. Gay St.) • Thursday, Oct. 13 • 8 p.m. • $24-$34
The ex-Black Flag frontman talks about his travels, his TV shows, and his other various creative pursuits.
Paula Poundstone
Bijou Theatre (803 S. Gay St.) • Friday, Oct. 14 • 8 p.m. • $33
Michael Schwartz Paula Poundstone by Michael Schwartz
Poundstone, a veteran comic and regular panelist on NPR’s Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me, straddles the line between standup and spoken-word performance these days—no two shows are ever the same, and Poundstone spikes her regular material with impromptu insights and observations.
David Sedaris
Bijou Theatre (803 S. Gay St.) • Thursday, Oct. 20 • 8 p.m. • $59.50
The New Yorker contributor and best-selling humor memoirist releases his long-awaited next book, a collection of his personal diaries, in 2017.
NOVEMBER
Jeff Dunham
Thompson-Boling Arena • Sunday, Nov. 6 • 3 p.m. • $46.50
The most famous ventriloquist in the world will introduce his unpredictable characters on the Perfectly Unbalanced tour.
Scruffy City Comedy Fest
Downtown • Nov. 4-6 • $15-$40
Clay Duda Trae Crowder by Clay Duda
The third installment of Knoxville’s biggest comedy festival will take over several venues
on Market Square and around downtown this fall. Headliners include Baron Vaughn, Emily Heller, and East Tennessee’s own Liberal Redneck, Trae Crowder.
Senior Editor Matthew Everett manages the Knoxville Mercury's arts & entertainment section, including the comprehensive calendar section—Knoxville’s go-to guide for everything worth doing in the area. You can reach Matthew at matthew@knoxmercury.com.
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