Jessica Williams and Phoebe Robinson, HILARIOUS FRIENDS, co-hosting Blaria.
  • Caroline Smith
  • Jessica Williams and Phoebe Robinson, HILARIOUS FRIENDS, co-hosting Blaria LIVE!

Individually, Phoebe Robinson and The Daily Show's Jessica Williams are two of the funniest ladies around, and together, they are a dream team of hilarity and friendship. This was on display for all in the depths of the Doug Fir last night, where they imported Blaria LIVE! for the Bridgetown Comedy Festival.

In a night of back-to-back shows packed with national names in comedy, they brought a lineup of uniformly great comedians, including Maggie Maye, Michelle Buteau, Nore Davis, Matteo Lane, Baron Vaughn, and beloved Portland ex-pat Shane Torres. If you were anywhere else during Blaria, probably you had a great time, this is Bridgetown, it is hard to go wrong, but still! I almost can't remember the other shows I saw yesterday; it's as if my brain only wants to hold onto the perfectly orchestrated two hours that was Blaria.

Maggie Maye

Torres delivered his usual mastery of funny-sad humor (THE BEST KIND), telling jokes about the particular misery of the "Personal Life" subhead on Wikipedia entries, and not being able to get "out of futon" (this is something I've heard him say in sets before; it is never not funny AND ALSO TRAGIC). Nore Davis shared the plight of sneakerheads everywhere—"I can't run in these! They might crease!"—and Maggie Maye ruined Marvin Gaye's discography for everyone by pointing out that "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" sounds a lot like "a voicemail that later becomes evidence." Baron Vaughn told some high-concept jokes about people who refuse to admit that they're falling asleep, and Michelle Buteau... Everyone on this bill was amazing, really, but Michelle Buteau's stand-up is something else. It's a beautiful, convulsive, pointed mess, where nothing is off-limits, but she doesn't waste time on pointless shock value. Her set covered Dutch racism, how being in Portland makes her want to "grow lavender and get a thigh tattoo," and feeling "like a fat Beyonce."

Jokes throughout the night edged up against police brutality, racism, street harassment, and gender equality, which isn't surprising given Williams' work on The Daily Show and the fact that Robinson named the show as a place for comics "seeing the world through the eyes of a black Daria." But it is welcome. At Bridgetown, it's easy to see a show this funny, but nowhere is it is easy to see a show that's this smart.

And one of my favorite parts of the show was just listening to Williams and Robinson's back-and-forth stage banter, which covered kombucha (Jessica Williams hates kombucha! I know because Phoebe Robinson made her drink some onstage), making fun of Portland (in a way that was actually original and made me feel somehow grateful?), Robert Durst, Nora Ephron, #dadbods, Carrie Bradshaw (they are #TeamAidan, if you care!), and how weird it is that Scandal's Olivia Pope "has no black girlfriends." Oh, and they also had sound effects? And at one point they joined hands and lifted them in triumph, a moment that was both hilarious and beautiful! Oh man, just all the emoji praise hands for Jessica Williams and Phoebe Robinson, really. They even took an adorable mid-show selfie:

Best hosts ever.

Next up: Vickie from Reality Bites Janeane Garafalo heads up Hey Ladies!, which is—you guessed it!—a women-only showcase.