Eugene Mirman, Kristen Schaal and John Hodgman @ The Pabst Theater

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Photo credit: Adam Miszewski

While the Pabst Foundation has done a brilliant job bringing more standup comedy to the city, Milwaukee sadly lacks some of the basic infrastructure that would draw in even more of the cutting edge. It takes a pretty big name to justify booking the Riverside Theater, or even Turner Hall Ballroom, and if you’re not a well-established headliner, there aren’t a lot of mid-size theaters as an alternative, just smaller clubs, most of which fall beneath your station. One route for well-known, but niche, comics trying to punch above their weight is to band together, as Eugene Mirman, Kristen Schaal and John Hodgman, all extremely funny but by no means household names, did for this particular tour.

The show opened with a collection of Hodgman’s cellphone videos of the trio exploring Milwaukee, after which the co-headliners emerged for some collective crowd work, finding plenty of unexpected inspiration at the expense of a presumptuous, seat-hopping audience member, who for some reason wasn’t wearing any shoes. Dubbed the “Sandwich to Go” tour, the only justification for the title is a tradition wherein an audience member presents a sandwich unique to the city that’s hosting them. Representing Milwaukee, oddly, was a Sheboygan steak sandwich, whatever the hell that is, which largely failed to leave any noticeable impression. After sharing the stage for a while, they broke off for individual standup sets, starting with Eugene Mirman.

Mirman, who at age of four emigrated from the USSR to Boston, a standup town if there ever was one, is probably best known for parts on “Flight of the Conchords,” Adult Swim’s "Delocated” and the criminally underrated “Bob’s Burgers.