Home Club: Mark Ridleys Comedy Castle.
He has performed at Ridleys, Laugh Factory in Chicago, Detroit House of Comedy, Funny Bone in Toledo, The Comedy Project in Grand Rapids, One Night Stans and have hosted at The Second City in Chicago, as well as at the Traverse City Comedy Club.
In September, 2024 he auditioned at The Comedy Chateau in Los Angeles and will perform in December.
He was a finalist in Ridleys Detroit to LA Competition, performed in Gilda’s Laughfest, Maumee Comedy Festival, Jersey City Comedy Festival, the Upper Peninsula Comedy Festival and the Finger Lakes Comedy Festival.
Nazik Najar uses her dry sense of humor, and cynical point of view, to tell stories about teaching, culture, and family. People usually don’t say her name right on the first try. Or second. Or third.
Nazik made her comedy debut at Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle. She has since performed at One Night Stan’s, Detroit House of Comedy, and the Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase. Nazik has performed with the Micaholics Comedy Crew, at private events, and all manners of open mics around town.
Keith Lenart is an internationally touring comedian, working clubs across the U.S. and shows overseas for the troops. A regular at the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas, Keith also enjoys entertaining at corporate events and private parties. His television and film appearances include Last Comic Standing, NBC’s So You Think you’re Funny, American Wedding, and Vamps with Sigourney Weaver and Richard Lewis. He has worked with comedy legends such as Bobcat Goldthwait, Pauly Shore, Jim Gaffigan, Caroline Rhea, Judy Tenuta and more.
Craig is a comedian from White Lake MI who’s been building his comedy reputation on every stage he hits with his one liners, short stories and observations. He was also a finalist in Hillsdale’s “Last Comic Standing” and has hit the stages of Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle, One Night Stan’s and Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase to name a few. Be prepared to laugh as he talks about his near death experience and his wife’s toes.
With over 3,500 career performances, Andy Beningo has established himself as one of the most in demand comedians working today. Hailed for his clean and “every man” style, Andy has been named one of the 40 Best Up and Coming Comedians in the country, as well as “Best Comedian” by both the Detroit Metro Times and Detroit Hour magazine. Andy has appeared on AXS TV’s Gotham Comedy Live, CMT’s Next Big Comic, and on Drybar Comedy- where his special, ‘Adorable Tough Guy’ generated over six million views on social media. Andy has been heard on the nationally syndicated Bob and Tom radio show, and was a special guest on Larry the Cable Guy’s ‘Weekly Round Up’ on Sirius XM radio. His first comedy album, ‘Quiet Coyote’ regularly plays on Laugh USA. His rare ability to find humor in subjects like growing up the middle child, his short lived career as a middle school teacher and our society’s obsession with technology has made him a crowd favorite in audiences worldwide.
Margaret Edwartowski and Nancy Hayden (aka Bottle of Red) met at The Second City Detroit where they were both mainstage cast performers. Upon realizing they were essentially the same person, the two quickly became besties. Soon after, Margaret and Nancy, along with their pal Josh Funk, founded the Planet Ant Improv Colony in 2000 and “Improv Mondays at the Ant” were born.
For some reason it never occurred to them to create a two-person troupe until one fateful night in 2006 when a team didn’t show up at Planet Ant and Hayden & Edwartowski hastily formed a duo, thought of a name that centered less around their copious red wine consumption and more around their *ahem* not-so-natural hair color, and filled in for the no-shows. (thanks, flakes!)
They also created a form that was half of the legendary Weirdass and half Goon River Anthology. They called it the Goon Ass. And it went well!
Bottle of Red was born, and the duo went on to play a sold-out improv run at Planet Ant as well as writing and performing their legendary sketch show ‘Uncorked,’ which ran at the Ant in the summer of 2007.
Since then, they’ve played at many super fun festivals including DIF and the Detroit Women of Comedy Festival.
They still love to play the Goon Ass and you can catch them doing just that monthly at Go Comedy Theater in Ferndale.
Peggy Beattie is a fresh, new, but old comedian from the northern suburbs of Detroit. She’s not afraid to talk about the ridiculousness of the world today and her own version of crazy. Peggy has emceed at Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle and recently made it to the finals at Mark Ridleys, Detroit to LA contest-Judges choice! She has performed in shows all across MI from One Night Stan’s, to Detroit House of Comedy. Peggy also opened for the hilarious, “Last Comic Standing” finalist, Rocky Laporte at Traverse City Comedy Club.
Nick Leydorf is a fun-loving, Michigan comedian with a quick wit and a third nipple. When he’s not on stage, you can find Nick in his office being a lawyer, paying off his student loans. Described as “funny, adorable, and non-threatening” by one writer, Nick talks about his unrelatable profession in such a relatable way that audiences can’t help but laugh.
So far, Nick has performed in festivals around the country including Cleveland Comedy Festival, Crossroads Comedy Festival, Gilda’s LaughFest, the Detroit Comedy Festival, the Savage Henry Comedy Festival, Big Time Garbage Festival, What a Joke Comedy Festival, Stoop Fest and the Elsie Dairy Festival. Okay, the last one was because Whitesnake had to cancel.
