Dueling Cheese. Sounds like what you’d get if KC and the Sunshine Band opened for the Captain and Tennille at a fondue supper club. On bellbottom jean night. In Cincinnati. With Tony Bennett as a special guest.
Although that’d be friggin’ awesome (BTW, if even part of that ever happens, I’m all in), that’s not what this blog post is about. Dueling Cheese is a new comedy team, of which I’m half. The other half is tribute-band-performer-author-humorist-singer-guitarist-entertainer, and bon vivant shit stirrer, Tony Oros, who has more hyphens in his IRS 1040 form job description than a sociology-major-grad-student-filmmaker-waiter who plays jazz horn on the side.
Dueling Cheese started out as just Tony and Stacy shootin’ the shit on KPCW radio in Park City. Tony has a radio show every other Sunday on KPCW, 91.9 FM, and one Sunday this past summer I joined him on the air just for grins. I was supposed to make a guest appearance for one segment at most, but we started spontaneously riffing with each other and before we knew it people were calling in to add their own fertile wit to the compost pile of comedy we’d created. THREE HOURS later he was wrapping up the show and I was still sitting at mic #3.
Okay, fine. I did somewhat poach his show, however, we were having such a great time I thought no one would notice, or care, that there was this extra person cracking wise during his time slot.
Semi-scripted Comedic Riffery
Turns out people did notice, one of whom was Larry Hart, owner of Riff’s Acoustic Music in Park City, a guitar-store-live-music-venue-Portlandia-esque-barista-type-coffee-shop (yikes, more hyphens). Larry sponsors his Full Moon Concert Series, a monthly event in which he brings in bands and singer-songwriters to entertain the community on his intimate stage. Around that same time Larry and I had discussed starting some sort of comedy performances on that very same stage, thus creating a second series (in addition to the Full Moon concerts), except showcasing comedy instead of music.
As luck would have it, Larry heard Tony and me riffing on the radio one Sunday. Afterward he called and said, “THAT’s what I want in our comedy series; that kind of banter and rapport between two people who can play the discourse card while holding their own comedically with each other. Could you guys do that onstage at Riff’s?”
Um, yeah…I think we might be able to work something out, Larry.
As you might imagine, Tony was agreeable to this new form of employment. And if he wasn’t then I’d have to kill him. Or at least slightly maim him. I mean, come on, we’d continue to engage in this silly repartee anyway, why not rake in a little cash just for being the opinionate goons we are? Plus, there’s not a lot of prep involved. Honestly, we don’t need to bone up on being us, which is a total win in the homework department.
Thus Dueling Cheese Was Born
We needed a name for our comedy team and decided Dueling Cheese fit the bill. Because as one of our fans, Art Cohen of San Diego quipped on the Dueling Cheese fan page, “…cheese is always funny.”
With radio banter as the focal point, Larry, Tony, and I put our heads together and came up with The Riff’s Radio Hour, which is a two-hour show (that little irony is our first joke). Starting Thursday, October 10, The Riff’s Radio Hour will grace the stage at Riff’s every other Thursday. The format is an old-time, comedy radio broadcast (think Elaine May and Mike Nichols, but with smartphones) onstage in front of a live audience, but not actually broadcasted live on the radio (that’s our second joke). Tony and I will riff just like we did on KPCW, take a short break, and then in the second set either Tony or I will interview a guest.
Our first show comes up in 10 short days on Thursday, October 10. Our first guest is our buddy, the immensely talented comedian Guy Seidel, who just returned on the heels of performing at the World Series of Comedy in Las Vegas. A regular at Wiseguys in Salt Lake City, Guy has toured all over and has played in some of the top comedy clubs in the country. I will sit down with this brilliant standup and see what makes “this Guy” tick. (Rim shot, please. Like he’s never heard that one before.) We have no idea what hilarity will ensue as a result of working without a net, but suffice it to say it will be semi-scripted comedic riffery at its finest.
But hey, don’t take my word for it. Here’s a bit of our past riffery, just to give you a little taste of what’s in store when you come see Dueling Cheese live at the Riff’s Radio Hour:
Be there for the very first Riff’s Radio Hour (come on, you know you want to).
Thursday, October 10 at Riff’s Acoustic Music, 1205 Ironhorse Drive, Park City
Doors open at 7:00 p.m. show starts at 8:00 p.m.
Starring the riffery of Dueling Cheese (AKA Tony Oros and Stacy Dymalski)
With special guest comedian Guy Seidel
For advance reservations or questions call Riff’s at 435-647-1940
$20 per ticket for a two-hour show.
Hey, that’s only 17 cents a minute to laugh your ass off. It’s cheaper than porn, people.
Space is limited. The room only holds 55 lucky patrons of comedy, first come, first serve.
The Riff’s Radio Hour will be presented at Riff’s Acoustic Music every other Thursday, starting October 10.
Thanks for listening, here’s your kazoo.
(See? Now you HAVE to come to find what THAT’s all about.)
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Stacy Dymalski is an award winning keynote speaker and stand-up comic who gave up the glamorous life of coach travel, smokey comedy clubs, and heckling drunks for the glamourous life of raising kids (who happen to be bigger hecklers than the drunks). This blog is her new stage. For more of Stacy’s comedy check out her book Confessions of a Band Geek Mom available in bookstores and on Amazon in paperback and Kindle.