The Play's The Thing...So Is The Stand-Up Stage

I was able to watch Zach Louis do something this past Friday night that I haven't experienced since 2011. I watched him onstage in a play before a live audience for the first time since he was in middle school in St. Louis. I've seen him onstage doing stand-up comedy in Los Angeles as well as improv at Second City in Hollywood. It's just been a long time since he has performed in a play.

In fact, he is currently in two plays in North Hollywood. Friday night saw him take the stage in a production of "The Marriage Zone" at the Secret Rose Theatre. Zach plays the child of the couple in the play as well as the narrator who sets up the play at the start of the show. The plot revolves around a married couple who are both unhappy in the marriage for different reasons. They are visited in "The Marriage Zone" by younger and older versions of their characters so they can see where they started and where they might end up as a couple. There are certainly some heavy moments in the play but Zach helps to keep things light with a number of funny lines.

The cast features a combination of younger performers and veterans who have appeared in such TV shows and films as "CSI: Cyber", "Grimm", "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade". If you are near North Hollywood, and looking for a night of entertainment in an intimate theatre, you can find your tickets here. Zach's next performance is Labor Day Weekend and a code for discount tickets will be provided if you sign-up for emails from Plays 411.

Why is Zach not in the play this coming week? Because he is performing three shows this week during the Burbank Comedy Festival. The list of comedians is a mixture of established names and emerging comedians. Zach's three shows this week include:

1. Laugh Revolt Repeat
2. Emerging Comedians
3. Opening for Hal Sparks

All of the comedians hope to make a good impression on the crowd as well as the organizers of the festival so they will be invited to take part in the "Best of the Fest" shows on the last night of the festival. The festival also features panels, parties, podcasts and networking opportunities for all of the comedians taking part in the event.

I'm looking forward to a week of comedy with many people I've never seen before as well as watching Zach do his "thang" in front of industry veterans.  As always, I haven't heard his set in advance so I hope I haven't done anything stupid enough (lately) to be made fun of in his set. If I am made fun of by Zach, he is too old for me to ground so I guess it's all just part of the #funnybusiness of the festival.

This TV and movie actor is living onstage this week.