Comedian and Iowa-native Brooks Wheelan has announced two performances in the area this coming month, Wooly’s on Sept. 10 and The Mill on Sept. 13, as part of the “Brooks Wheelan Falls Back on Stand Up Comedy (sorta) Tour.” Wasting no time, Wheelan began this tour a little over a week after announcing his departure from SNL, lightheartedly tweeting, “FIRED FROM NEW YORK IT’S SATURDAY NIGHT.”
As he explained in an interview with The Wrap, “Anything bad that happens to me in my life I deal with by making a joke of it. It’s disarming and makes me feel better … That’s not just with SNL. That’s with being broken up with, or pulled over, or arrested.”
Wheelan’s knack for finding the humorous in frustrating situations features prominently in his stand-up and often draws on his experiences from his days in Iowa, making them all the funnier for audiences who know Iowa. For example, appreciating that Iowa City is the likely setting for the episode Wheelan relates in this stand-up bit, one involving excessive drinking and a botched “butter-in-your-pants” prank, certainly adds a layer of heading-nodding recognition to an already hilarious story.
