Mike Epps brings a couple friends to Waco for 'The Big Comedy Show'
By Carl Hoover Tribune-Herald entertainment editor
“The Big Comedy Show” with Mike Epps
Featuring Kenny Howell and Henry Welch
Performance: 8 p.m. Saturday at the Extraco Coliseum (formerly Heart O’ Texas Coliseum).
Tickets: $30 to $40 plus handling charges. Call 776-1660 or buy online at www.ticketmaster.com.
Actor-comedian Mike Epps may be on the movie screen these days as Reverend Taylor in “Lottery Ticket,” but the 3-D version of him takes the stage Saturday night at Extraco Coliseum (formerly the Heart O’ Texas Coliseum) in Waco.
Epps headlines “The Big Comedy Show: Mike Epps & Friends,” following fellow comics Kenny Howell and Henry Welch, veterans, like Epps, of the Def Comedy Jam and BET’s “Comic View.”
He comes to Waco during a break in filming the comedy “Jumping the Broom” in Nova Scotia. The movie, set for release in May, follows two black families from different socioeconomic levels who meet at a wedding at Martha’s Vineyard. In addition to Epps, the cast includes Angela Bassett, Paula Patton, Loretta Devine and Romeo Miller.
Actor-comedian Mike Epps takes the stage Saturday night at Extraco Coliseum (formerly the Heart O’ Texas Coliseum) in Waco.
A native of Indianapolis, Epps, 39, got his start in standup comedy as a teen, first in Indianapolis, then Atlanta, and finally New York, where he landed a slot in 1995’s Def Comedy Jam tour, with appearances in two HBO Def Comedy Jam specials. As his comic star began to rise, so did his film work, starting with “Strays” in 1997.
Epps’ breakout role came in 2000 as the nervous, pot-smoking Day-Day in Ice Cube’s “Next Friday,” a part he reprised in “Friday After Next” two years later.
He has nearly three dozen film credits under his belt, most for secondary characters and including such movies as “The Fighting Temptations;” “All About the Benjamins,” a remake of “The Honeymooners” (playing Ed Norton); “Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins;” “Next Day Air;” “Resident Evil: Extinction;” the Petey Greene biographical “Talk To Me” and the 2009 summer hit “The Hangover.”
His film roles, while often ribald and raunchy, are a little tamer than his highly profane and adult stand-up act, captured in such concert DVDs as “Mike Epps: Inappropriate Behavior” and “Mike Epps: Under Rated . . . Never Faded & X-Rated.”
The comedian’s latest television special arrives Sept. 27 on the cable network Showtime.
Epps declined a request for a print interview, but he did a radio appearance for Waco concert host KWBT-FM and afternoon radio personality Edward “Grahamann” Graham.
Which of his films was his favorite? “ ‘All About the Benjamins’ — I got paid the most for that one,” he told Graham.
He won’t hold back for his first show in Waco, he added. “I might have to do the Stanky Leg on a big girl on the front row,” he told Graham, referring to a hip-hop dance move.
Chicago native Kenny Howell and Atlanta comic Henry Welch will open for Epps.
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• Multiple Hydes blur the line between good and evil in Baylor Theatre’s production “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” which continues its run at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Feb. 2-4, and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 4-5, at Hooper-Schaefer Fine Arts Center. $15, $13 for Baylor students, faculty and staff. Call 710-1865.
• Waco’s Smooth Jazz Generation kicks off a weekly jazz night at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 2 at Tres Mexican Restaurant, 723 S. Sixth St. $6-10 for dinner, no cover before 7.
• The world-famous Vienna Boys Choir returns to Waco for a 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 5 concert at Austin Avenue United Methodist Church, 1300 Austin Ave. The Vienna Boys Choir previously sang in Waco in 2001 at the Waco Hippodrome Theatre and in 2008 at Baylor University. Tickets cost $35 for premium seating, $25 for adults and $10 for students, available at the church, online at austinavenueumc.org or at the door. The concert will end about an hour before the start of the Super Bowl. Call 254-754-4685 for information.
• The Stars Over Texas Jamboree pays tribute to Valentine’s Day with an Oldies Heart & Soul theme at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 2 at the Lee Lockwood Library and Museum, 2801 W. Waco Drive. $12, $10 for those ages 65 and older or 12 and younger.
• The touring show “Black Art — Ancestral Legacy” begins a month-long showing at the West Waco Library and Genealogy Center, 5301 Bosque Blvd. Hours: 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 1-5 p.m. Sundays. Free.
• Art Center Waco’s “Membership Invitational Art Exhibition” comes to an end this weekend with a closing reception from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 3 at the center, 1300 College Drive. The unveiling of the exhibition’s winning poster image takes place at 7 p.m.
• Art by Kathy Lovas and Susan Sponsler makes up the Croft Art Gallery’s February exhibit “Red/Yellow,” whose opening reception is held from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 3 at the gallery, 712 Austin Ave. Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays.
• Waco rapper Big Binky brings on a local Super Bowl half-time show Sunday, Feb. 5 at Jordan Sports Bar and Lounge, 921 Lake Air Drive.
• Flatbed Press co-director Katherine Brimberry will talk about the Austin print-making company and its work at 1:30 and 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 11 at the Martin Museum of Art in Baylor University’s Hooper-Schaefer Fine Arts Center. Free.
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