A Comedy Store Tradition: The Barris/Kennedy + Overdrive
The Comedy Store is special for many reasons, not least of which is that for the same ticket price you get at any other club with maybe 3 to 6 comedians, The Store offers a full night of **16** national headliners every night. And the Original Room is a special place where comedians who have been in the game 5, 10, even 20 years can stretch a little and experiment. And one of the most special times at The Store is Late Night - with a more intimate (and inebriated) audience, it get’s real. Really Real. And the staple of Late Night at the Comedy Store is Don Barris and the Barris/Kennedy + Overdrive.
Don Barris brings the personable touch he’s honed doing years of stand-up and audience warm up at Jimmy Kimmel Live to the weird, wacky and bizzare vibe of 2 am at The Store. After making the connection with the audience, he leads them in to a set from “a little band from Los Angeles, California” called The Barris/Kennedy + Overdrive. They don’t do covers, but they do perform medleys of some of your favorite songs, often accompanied by the back stories of when the band wrote this particular ditty while something crazy was happening on the road.
The band originally started as the Barris/Brody + Overdrive, with drummer Steven Brody Stevens, who still frequently sits in. As with most rock bands, the lineup has changed over time due to family pressure, career pressures and tragic drug addiction. At the core of the current lineup are front man Don Barris, bassist Maryjane, guitarists Earl “Skakel” Kennedy and Tony “Hinchcliffe” Kennedy, rotating drummers Steven Brody Stevens, Pete “Cornaccione” Best, and Go Go Gail Gramlich, with lights & sound technician Willie Hunter. The band is frequently joined by guest stars Jeff Ross, Bryan Callen, Steve Rannazissi and Justin Martindale as well as an assortment of volunteer back up dancers from the audience.
This is the kind of artistic blend of comedy, music and theater that only The Comedy Store provides and you can see it almost any night if you Stay Till 2.
