On the Mic with Mike Peters

Send us Fan Mail Steve Vanderploeg started doing stand-up in Denver, his hometown, 11 years ago. All he wanted to do back then was get a five-minute booking at the Comedy Works open mic. Now he's headlining there. Vanderploeg is touring the country and founded Roatating Tap Comedy back in 2019. He's putting that English degree to work. He's performed at the High Plains, 10,000 Laugh...

Send us Fan Mail Anna Huntley is a very funny comedian in Washington, D.C. She moved from South Carolina for a job and decided to get on stage five years ago at 36. A lifelong learning, she took improv, acting and stand-up classes and writes and performs on a sketch team. She also got permission from her landlord to get a cat, which might have a deeper, sadder meaning. Follow Anna Huntley Instagra...

Send us Fan Mail Dan Wilbur started doing stand-up when he was 18 years old and attending Bard College, where he met comedian Katie Berlant and Raphael Bob-Wakesberg, the creator of BoJack Horseman. Wilbur moved to Brooklyn after school and has kept himself busy. He's published two books, "How Not to Read: Harnessing the Power of a Literature-Free Life" and "Never Flirt with Pu...

Send us Fan Mail Dan Clark has been doing stand-up in Philadelphia since 2016. He gave it a try following a divorce and discovered he was pretty good at it. A graduate of Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, Dan worked as a journalist until 2021. He also played rugby and played bass in a punk band. Now he's working on getting booked and starting the Idiot Bridge podcast.  Follow Dan Clark:  I...

Send us Fan Mail Uzair Malik is a graduate student at Northeastern in Boston and only 15 months into his stand-up career. But he's already made some impressive strides. After growing up in India, he started doing comedy in San Francisco before moving to the East Coast. He finished second at the New England's Funniest Comedian competition in 2023 and participated in the World Series of Co...

Send us Fan Mail Gary Sharp, Jr. grew up playing football and basketball and running track in south New Jersey. He played college football at Johns Hopkins and began doing stand-up when his mom gave him the information for a comedy class at Helium Comedy Club in Philadelphia. Since starting in August of 2019, he's been working hard and is starting to stand out in the scene. He's been at...

Send us Fan Mail Holly Johnston graduated from Hofstra with a psychology major and radio, TV and film minor and then started doing stand-up in 2019 -- following in her dad’s footsteps. She grew up in Hopedale, Mass., and moved to Austin, Texas, where she was able to get plenty of time on stage. Holly moved back to Hopedale in the fall and is producing shows, too. She’s co-producing the Wooster Roa...

Send us Fan Mail Steve Burke is a comedian, actor and writer in Ithaca. He's been performing for the last decade -- starting stand-up in 2013, then beginning improv the next year. He's part of the Comedy Flops, Ithaca's best improv troupe, and he works closely with Paul Kozlowski at the Ake Gallery in Cortland. After taking a little time off, Burke has jumped right back into the Ith...

Send us Fan Mail Zachary Wycuff started doing stand-up at the University of Cincinnati when he was 21 years old and he stayed put. He's been at it for eight years and has established himself as a strong comedian in the Midwest. He was just at the Flyover Comedy Festival in St. Louis and has a Dry Bar Comedy special waiting to be released. He worked as a probation officer before taking a job a...

Send us Fan Mail Andy McDermott has been doing stand-up in the Husdon Valley and Albany areas for almost a decade. He's one of the strongest comedians in the upstate area and runs More Than Jokes, his production company, where he books talent across the Northeast. He works regularly at the Syracuse Funny Bone and the Laugh it Up Comedy Club in Poughkipsee, among others. He takes writing jokes...

Send us Fan Mail Ray Roberts grew up in Ohio and started doing stand-up while at Kent State back in 2014. He's worked all over the Midwest and is based in Milwaukee, Wisc., for now. Chicago is in his future. He features for Zoltan Kaszas and released his first album, "B-Sides All That," in 2020. He also hosts the Comedy and Mushroom Cult podcast.  Follow Ray Roberts:  Instagram: htt...

Send us Fan Mail Jared Hazen is four years into his stand-up career and just moved to Bristol, Tenn., in May. He spent eight years in the Air Force, working in the medical unit as a surgical technition and trying to relive what he saw on M*A*S*H. He got drunk at his first open mic at Chilkoot Charlie's in Anchorage, Alaska, and things have gotten better from there. He's learning the Tenn...

Send us Fan Mail Gabbie Watts started doing stand-up in Atlanta about six years ago. She grew up playing the upright bass in orchestra and picked up the electric bass and guitar. She played in a punk band and recently decided to add a music element to her comedy repertoire, leading her to create the monthly show, Comedy Bandstand, at the Dynamic El Dorado in Atlanta. Gabbie works for IHeart Radio,...

Send us Fan Mail Erin Lok started doing stand-up in Madison, Wisc., after she promised her dad she'd give it a try. Four years later, she's running her own shows in Charleston, S.C. A track and field athlete and sociology student at SUNY Cortland, she began her comedy career by auditioning for an improv troupe. When her dad got sick, she came back to Long Island and changed paths right b...

Send us Fan Mail Ronnie Fleming grew up doing improv in Havre de Grace, Md., and moved to New York City to pursue film school. He began doing stand-up when he got there and really improved when he started working the road. That's where he found his alter-ego, Chase Freely, too. He's working with Steve Hofstetter's Steel City Arts Foundation in Pittsburgh and runs Don't Tell Com...

Send us Fan Mail Andrew Yang started doing stand-up seven years ago in Ann Arbor, Mich. He watched sets on Conan to get the feel of stand-up and decided to give it a try after his late-night packet wasn't selected. The host of the Blind Pig open mic, Yang founded the Tree Town Comedy Festival in March before deciding to let go of it. He's a husband and has a 3-year-old daughter, so he&ap...

Send us Fan Mail Maxwell Shultz is a comedian, producer and author from Haverhill, Mass. He's extremely well-traveled, having been behind the mic in 40 states over his nine-year stand-up career, and he just released his second hour, "Just Another Beautiful Day," on YouTube. He's one of the comedians behind Malice Comedy, which produces shows in Massachusetts and New Hampshire....

Send us Fan Mail Aamir Arshad started doing stand-up a couple years ago in Rochester and he's already made some pretty big strides. He's a regular at the Comedy at the Carlson, works all over upstate New York and finished second at the Rochester's Funniest Person contest in 2023. He started his radio career while attending RIT and has a show, Only the Important Things, with Chris Ha...

Send us Fan Mail Rebecca Jaffe started doing stand-up in the St. Louis scene. After graduating from Milikin University, she moved to Chicago with Hannah Magy to do stand-up and sketch comedy. Rebecca, who took classes at Second City, comes from a musical family -- her mom loves Broadway -- and was in a Jewish bluegrass band with her father and sibling called the Missouri Tree Frogs. She's bee...

Send us Fan Mail As a kid, Devin Mahoney wanted to be on SNL. He settled for getting a degree from Syracuse and finding a spot in the writers room at NBC, on a show called Scrubs. He spent five years there as a production assistant, writer's assistant, etc. and even wrote an episode in Season 8 called My Comedy Show. He was in the room when Bill Lawrence wrote the finale, too. Mahoney also wo...

Send us Fan Mail Max Fine started doing stand-up in Atlanta, a few minutes from Turner Field, so he had to be a Braves fan. He started doing stand-up in Atlanta and worked the road before moving to New York. He's been all over the country, working out the material for his debut album, "I Like His Style," which comes out on Oct. 13. The pre-orders begin on Sept. 22, though, so get yo...

Send us Fan Mail Delisia Nicholas is a super funny comedian in Pensacola, Fla., who grew up with a ferret and 76 rabbits. She named them and everything. She started doing stand-up in 2019 and has already been at the Altercation Festival in Austin, Texas, the B4UDie Fest in Anchorage, Alaska, and Middle Ground Comedy Festival in Indianapolis. She's staying busy because she's got to suppor...

Send us Fan Mail Tori Kilkenny moved to Chicago in 2018 and started doing stand-up a month later. She did it as a way to improve her skillset as an actor and ended up finding a couple comedic homes -- in stand-up and sketch. She's splitting her time between both, running sketches with End of the Worm As We Know It at the Annoyance Theater, and doing stand-up all over Chicago. A Kansas City na...

Send us Fan Mail Shaun Murphy moved to New York City from Buffalo in 2008 and once more, for good, in 2013. He's been doing stand-up since 2004 and is a regular opener for Mark Normand. Murphy got passed at the Comedy Cellar in 2021 and is performing all over the world with Normand and headlining clubs. He also co-hosts In the Hunt: A Buffalo Bills Podcast with Greg Bauch and Kyle Turner.  Fo...

Send us Fan Mail Cody Cannon moved to West Virginia in high school and fell in love with it. He moved to Brooklyn to start stand-up in 2010, but decided to come back. He got back int omedy in 2017 and began Red Eye Comedy. He just finished the second Red Eye Comedy Festival and continues to be the main show producer in Morgantown, W. Va. He's got a podcast, Comics and Chronic, that comes out...