Today in Lansing: Salsa Parlor house comedy show

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Salsa Parlor Comedy Show

9 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Suggested donation

Salsa Parlor

1101 Burcham Dr., East Lansing

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FRIDAY, NOV. 30 — For the last show of the year, East Lansing’s house comedy venue puts together an all star cast of national and local comics for a rip roaring final hurrah of 2018.

Over 10 comics will take to the living room stage among its purple lights, couches and shelves of hot sauce.

Winner of Columbus’ 2015 Funny Bone Talent Search, comedian Leslie N Battle is a mother of three and a veteran who served for 26 years in the army and national guard before making comedy her full time career. It will be her third time performing at an East Lansing house show ran by Louis D. Michael.

Battle said she got into comedy after a contentious divorce in 2011, realizing she missed her time on the stage doing high school theater and community theater when she was stationed in Germany.

“I was looking for an outlet and ended up doing an open mic. Although I was completely awful, as evidence shows on my old Facebook videos, I kept doing it.”

In 2015, she retired from service partly to pursue comedy, she said. She uses some of her experience in the military for material.

“Some of the funniest stories involve misuses of somebody's tax money. I compare it to when you wait when you're adult to tell your parents how you got away with all the things.”

Battle is also a member of the Veterans of Comedy group who is working actively to combat veteran suicides. Twenty two veterans a day commit suicide, Battle said.

“We are trying to bring some hope and present alternatives to vets and anyone who will listen through the coping mechanism of humor.”

For Battle, comedy is also a coping mechanism.

“I was in a really dark place after my divorce and am struggling with being single now,” Battle said. “I have not completely vacated the place. If a guy can’t make me feel the way I feel when I have a killer set, it won’t work. The feeling I have when I have a crowd eating out of my hand 一 I don't even need to drink.”

Michael Geeter will also perform. A Pontiac native, Geeter grew up in a house with 17 siblings and is a self-described Ivy League dropout from Cornell. He’s performed at Kevin Hart’s “Hart of the City” in Detroit, as well as Fox’s comedy show “Laughs.”

“Forget Netflix, go out and watch a live comedy event. There is nothing else like it,” Geeter said. “Comedians craft these jokes from scratch almost weekly and people need to support that.”

Geeter started practicing comedy at 43 after his wife bought him comedy classes at Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle in Royal Oak.

“I wasn't really one to think you can be taught to funny. You are or you are not, but classes gave me the fire to write more and perform more.”

A father of four, Geeter said his kids are an endless supply of comedic stories.

“Seinfeld said, ‘We only have kids to replace us as people.’ In the interim we have to mind and sift through their exploits and use it on stage to make our funny happen,” Geeter said.

“Unfortunately I got into comedy later in life, but had a plethora of stories and experiences. My kids make up a great deal of humor, which happened in the last 30 years of your life.

Grand Rapids, Detroit and Lansing are home to great comedy scenes with Traverse City and Saginaw rising up, Geeter said.

“There are phenomenal comics from the UP to the LP. People need to plug themselves into the Michigan comedy scene.”

For more information on house comedy in Lansing, see https://lansingcitypulse.com/article-16430-Underground-house-shows-keep-comedy-alive-in-Greater-Lansing.html

More events in Lansing:

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Across the Bar

7 to 10 p.m., Strange Matter Coffee Co., 2010 E. Michigan Ave. Ste. 103, Lansing

REO Town Run Down

4 to 6 p.m., Jean Jean Vintage, 1136 S. Washington Ave., Lansing

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