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Comedy coming to Eagle County

Brett Hiker
ALL |

EAGLE COUNTY, Colorado – Fun is coming to town.

A Denver-based standup comedy troupe, “I Stole Your Baby,” is rolling through the valley for five shows in five nights, starting Monday.

The crew regularly rolls through the mountains for a series of shows.



“I like doing the tours in the mountain towns because comedy can be such a premium,” said Brett Hiker, a local guy who’s working hard to prove that you can get there from here, but you have to leave here to get there.

But visiting is good.

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Hiker was raised here (Brett Heicher. It’s pronounced the same way). People tell him they remember him being the class clown.

“The problem with most class clowns is that they’re not funny,” Hiker said.

Hiker was, and he still is.

They pack five to seven comics into a two-hour show, so you get your money’s worth. They bring five with them and usually pick up one or two local guys. Local Luke Bray sometimes joins them. He’s been doing standup in San Francisco.

This time they’re bringing Sam Tallent for a return trip. If you caught their show last time, Tallent was the feature comic who spent 25 of his 40 minutes making fun of one drunk heckler. It was OMG funny.

Denver “A-List” comic Elliot Woolsey will be joining them for the last two shows at the Sandbar in West Vail and Loaded Joe’s in Avon.

Like most good comics, almost nothing is off limits.

Like the three worst words your girlfriend can say are, “First of all.”

Then there’s Stoner Budgeting, and calls to stop the brutal Pinata Bashing.

There are sportscasters who never stop talking and spitting out inane statistics: “No running back in history scores more touchdowns while he’s delinquent on his child support payments than he does.”

If medical marijuana really is medicine, it should come with one disclaimer, says Jordan Doll: “Do not take this drug before grocery shopping.”

And that’s another name you might recognize – Jordan Doll, who brought Hiker into the fold.

Hiker, Doll, Rick DeSimone, Nate Balding and Don-John Kulish are the core. They started as a sketch comedy troupe and before long they added standup acts.

“I first tried standup comedy in college, about five years ago. My first time on stage went so well that I didn’t do it again for three years,” Hiker said.

He was working in Albuquerque where he was trying to break into the movie industry, because any wussicino sipping sissy can do it in Hollywood. He tried his hand at comedy again and this time it clicked.

“It’s easier to be funny there,” Hiker said.

He was one of the 12 finalists in the “Southwest Laugh Off,” a search for the funniest comic in the Southwest corner of the country.

He has performed across the U.S., as well as major international cities including Amsterdam and Berlin. He sticks closer to home these days, with a weekly show at Kinga’s Lounge in downtown Denver. He’s a regular performer at Comedy Works, one of the top rated comedy clubs in the nation, and most recently was featured at the 2010 Laugh Track and Aspen Rooftop Comedy Festivals.

Hiker got involved with “I Stole Your Baby” because they were doing sketch comedy and he had all that movie experience. No really, he did.

He worked on a Terminator movie and a couple George Clooney films, including “Men Who Stare at Goats.” He was grip doing lighting.

“You know how people say ‘There’s no such thing as just this or just that?'” Hiker said. “Well, if you’re a grip you’re just a grip. It’s the lowest rung on that ladder.”

These days he lives in Denver and works as much as he can. He’s been with the troupe for about a year and has been doing standup for two and a half years.

Jordan Doll had been recreationally cracking wise for most of his life when someone decided to put a microphone in front of him during a 2007 trip to Albuquerque. After a few promising shots at standup comedy, he headed back to Denver, where he was simultaneously humbled and inspired when he dove into the Denver comedy scene.

He and a few friends formed “I Stole Your Baby,” and they have been making with the funny ever since. Jordan and the guys from ISYB host one of Denver’s best open-mic comedy nights, every Sunday at Kinga’s Lounge on Denver’s exotic Colfax Avenue.

Jordan performs all over Denver, from appearances at the Denver Improv and Laughtrack Comedy Festival to shows at Denver’s Comedy Works.

And he’s an artist. His antics and art are regularly documented on IStoleYourBaby.com where he writes and performs in sketches, and contributes the semi-weekly comic strip “Leftovers.”

Every comedian has these stories, the ones where you’re sailing over the clouds because you just got a standing ovation, then throw the same material and it lays on the floor like artificial barf.

Hiker hosted a show at Denver’s Comedy Works and it was a comedic love-in. He and the crowd were ready to take each other home and live happily ever after.

His confidence soaring, he walked up the street to the Squire, considered one of the meanest open mic nights on earth.

“I was doing the same jokes and I got booed off the stage,” Hiker said.

Still, he and the rest of the troupe will keep doing it as long as they can.

“There’s nothing better than hearing people laugh, when they’re laughing,” Hiker said. “When they’re not, there’s nothing worse.”


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