A smart, sarcastic comic best known for her appearances on Chelsea Lately, Jen Kirkman attributes much of her success to working on the late night TV show. She applied to work on the show back in 2008 when she wrote a couple of monologues and then got hired.

“I was in Cleveland when I found out,” she told us last year in an email interview. “I was featuring for Maria Bamford at Hilarities when I got the call. I canceled my spot on the Sunday night show and hit the desk on Monday. It was a great experience working there that gave me everything I have now including my great health insurance.”

Kirkman is back on the road this year with all new material. A press release for the tour, dubbed the All New Material Girl Tour 2017, promises she’ll talk about “seeing fraudulent spiritual healers, holidays without family, being accused of not being ‘woke’ by young people, and tales of when she was a young obnoxious third party voter, and pretentious hater of pop culture.”

She’ll perform at Hilarities on Nov. 15.

This article appears in Jul 26 – Aug 1, 2017.

Jeff has been covering the Cleveland music scene for more than 25 years now. On a regular basis, he tries to talk to whatever big acts are coming through town. And if you're in a local band that he needs to hear, email him at jniesel@clevescene.com.