Angela Hoover Comes to Potawatomi's Northern Lights Theater

Expand

Photo Courtesy angelahoover.com

Angela Hoover numbers among the fortunate few who have parlayed reality competition TV show exposure to greater, lasting things. The eighth season “America's Got Talent” semi-finalist brings her stand-up often centering on domesticity and motherhood (she has a couple of kids) and uncanny knack for celebrity impersonation to Potawotami Hotel & Casino's Northern Lights Theater for 7 and 9 p.m. shows on March 9.

Of the gift of mimicry she discovered during a childhood rife with multiple moves of residence, Hoover recalls, "I don’t know that I really called them impressions at that time I think I just couldn’t help but imitate the person I was around. I mimicked the way they walked and talked. Anybody was more interesting than me. My dad used to tell me that when I would play at a park, I would just sit there and observe people and take them in. So basically, I was a three-year-old stalker.

"I don’t have any stories about my mimicry being not well received except for my mom saying to me at 11, 'Angie, just talk like Angie,' to which I would reply in a standard Cockney dialect, 'But mum I’m just talking like meself.'" Hoover not only has British accents down, but those who saw her on AGT may recall her killing it with the voices of Hispanic women such as actress Sophia Vergara and singer Christina Aguilera. Sharon Osbourne, Celine Dion, Drew Berrymore, Miley Cyrus, a couple of the Kardashian sisters and Penelope Cruz will be among those impersonated by Hoover in Milwaukee next month.

When she's not skewering celebs by taking on their vocal and physical idiosyncrasies, Hoover follows in the tradition of humorists such as Phyllis Diller and Erma Bombeck by finding the levity in her relationships with her husband, and especially her children. Of maintaining boundaries between the personal and fodder for her profession, she explains, "As a comedian or a writer, the only way for it to be interesting to the audience is if you speak truthfully about the challenges in your life, and if you have any kind of relationship, that’s going to be one of them. I do try to respect my kids especially because they are teens. Whatever goes online is there forever. But on the other hand, for what I go through on a daily basis, they have it coming! "For her numerous appearances for all-female groups," I usually tap into more of my mom’s stuff, but you know I tend to do that in front of both men and women!"

And though Hoover isn't one to work up a blue streak of profanity in her act, she's judicious when it comes to cursing, "To be honest I cuss more in my everyday life with my friends than I do on stage. I have nothing against it if it punches the joke up and it’s warranted, but for most my material, it doesn’t add anything. If I feel really strongly about something it’ll come out, but it’s not a big part of my act," she explains. But there may be a surprise her Northern Lights audience, too. "Never say never. Who knows what will happen to me between now and March 9th!"

Here's Hoover's on-point observations about the differences between churches attended by black and white people...

More Mojo Dojo

If you're like me, and you enjoy science fiction best when it's funny, local improv troupe Mojo Dojo are a resource worth investigating. At 7:30 p.m., Feb. 8, the latest installment of their ongoing Ex Machina series takes place at the ensemble's usual haunt, Urban Harvest Brewing Company, 1024 S. 5th St. Tickets are $10.

Says Mojo Dojo creative director Joe Zawada, "Ex Machina is an improvised science fiction show that follows the crew of the starship Ex Machina as they travel the galaxy to answer the burning questions of the Galactic Council. The show is a loving parody of classic sci-fi TV shows like ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Lost in Space.’ The cast members all perform the same characters in costume each show, as well as filling the roles of whatever aliens or inter-dimensional entities they might encounter that month."

Portraying the ship's crew are Erik Koconis as Captain Hugh Mann, Vince Figueroa as Science Officer Kevin Glaxnor, Beth Lewinski as Xenobiologist Dr. Kitty Gnozitchtal, Liv Shircel as medical droid 007-001 PhD HD MD, Ian Gunther as Helmsman Corporal Jameson and and Dave Lane as Custodial Engineer Rory Sullivan. Giving voice to Ex Machina's sentient computer is keyboardist Brian Bayer. Listeners to the hilarious Mission to Zyxx podcast and readers of zany newspaper comic Brewster Rockit: Space Guy! should consider themselves adived of another fount of futuristic funny from which to imbibe in Ex Machina. Next month's voyage embarks on Friday, March 29 at the same 7:30 p.m. launch time.

Music also naturally plays a part in Mojo Dojo-affiliated monthly improv musical play, Big Hot Robot. According to Zawada, "Upon receiving a simple, one-word suggestion from the audience, Big Hot Robot invents a two-act, Broadway-style musical right off the tops of their heads.” BHR's players were assembled by Mojo Dojo founder Robby McGhee, himself a veteran of Tall Boys Improv, All In Productions, and T.I.M. (The Improv al). McGhee joins his former improv students musical director Alison Bekolay, Sam Burns, Jo Montana, and Liv Shircel for their next show 8 p.m., Feb. 16 at Urban Harvest. Zawada suggests purchasing a $10 ticket soon because recent previous Robot shows have been sell-outs.

What’s Funny About Romance?

If getting a belly full of yuks from often unexpected angles can be one idea of a romantic date night, Milwakee native Jackie Kashian will make your Valentine's Day a special one. The hostess of multiple podcasts, opener for Brian Regan at Carnegie Hall and topper of iTunes' and Amazon's comedy album sales charts brings her act to the cozy confines of The Underground Collaborative at 7:30 p.m., Feb. 14, courtesy of the ever busy folks at Milwaukee Comedy. Here's promising to go for an interview with her next she comes to town, but in the meanwhile, check out her references to her Badger State upbringing as she goes from talking about her video game developer husband to comparing pet care in the upper Midwest to her current Southern Cailfornia home, as seen on Conan O'Brien's show a few years ago: