Stand-up comedian and internet personality Kurtis Conner performed his new Goodfellow World Tour show at the Warner Theatre on Sept. 6, taking his regional tours to the next level.
Conner’s comedy career started as a teenager on social media. Through the popular, and now discontinued, app Vine, Conner posted six-second videos for laughs that featured puns and his favorite skateboard.
Conner now creates and posts long-form commentary and skits on his YouTube channel for five million subscribers. Conner has a secondary YouTube channel where he hosts his own podcast called “Very Really Good.”
“I’ve seen him on YouTube for years, and seeing how funny he is and quick-witted he is in person was really awesome. He’s a funny guy.” Ethan Richardson, a sophomore from George Washington University said after seeing Kurtis Conner perform.
Conner humorously refers to himself as the “Mayor of Kurtistown” which makes his millions of fans “Residents of Kurtistown.” In Kurtistown there’s only one rule: “You have to be nice to Kurtis! It’s the law!”
After amassing millions of fans through his YouTube channel and other social platforms, Conner took his comedic talents on the road.
Despite Conner’s large online following, his D.C. show in Warner Theatre was intimate and personal, thanks to the theater’s cozy interior, under 2,000-person capacity and the friendly ambience.
Conner’s longtime friend and YouTube collaborator Jacob Sharpe, opened the performance with a variety of anecdotal narratives, some of which were jokes, and others more serious.
Sharpe made light of his experience with brain cancer, announced his exciting engagement to his fiancé and complained about his exhaustion of having bald men try to converse with him in hockey stadium bathrooms.
Conner followed suit, reaching every seat in the theater with his signature poignant humor by making fun of his tour bus catching on fire during his last comedy tour, celebrating the lesbians that make up a large percent of his audience and telling stories about working at McDonald’s as a shy 15-year-old boy with a crush on his coworker. Conner also used his platform to highlight a variety of pressing social issues while on stage, including police brutality, sex work and problems surrounding the healthcare system.
“I truly found it incredibly interesting the many jokes he made about defunding the police, because Washington D.C. is a very interesting place to bring up that type of humor,” Amanda Vinacco, a sophomore in the School of International Service said after the performance.
The Goodfellow World Tour will continue its run in Durham, South Carolina on Friday, Sept. 15 before heading to Pittsburgh on Thursday, Sept. 19.
“Many people enjoy humor in different ways, but Kurtis was able to unite everyone in the theater for about two hours, despite different beliefs, so everyone could enjoy a good laugh,” Vinacco said.
This article was edited by Jessica Ackerman, Marina Zaczkiewicz and Abigail Turner. Copy editing by Luna Jinks and Charlie Mennuti.
