Laugh Lounge Showcase

Curious Comedy Presents the Laugh Lounge Showcase - Portland's premiere stand up showcase. Every month, Curious Comedy and Laugh Lounge (a livestreaming comedy app) partner to bring you a sample plate of the funniest, most original stand up both live at Curious Comedy AND live streaming on the Laugh Lounge app for an affordable price. This month see Laura House (FX, MTV), Nariko Ott, Chris Johnson (WW Top 5 Comedians), Naomi Fitter (All Jane Comedy Fest), with host Belinda Carroll (Portland Queer Comedy Festival)

HEADLINER

LAURA HOUSE

Laura House started her comedy career as a seventh grade teacher in Austin, Texas performing stand-up at night (after a nap). After a year of performing, she quit teaching to develop and star on Austin Stories, Mtv’s first scripted sit-com. After moving to Los Angeles, she wrote on a bunch of shows including: the sketch show Blue Collar TV, half-hour sit-coms The George Lopez Show, Mad Love, Loosely Exactly Nicole, & the Emmy-winning shows Samantha Who and Mom. She has had several scripts in development, Super Mom for ABC with Barry Sonnenfeld, Lifeblowz for FX with Katey Sagal and two shows for Nickelodeon. Her script How to Hate Yourself landed on the We for She list. She currently writes on the BAFTA-winning BBC series, Secret Life of Boys. Her comedy album Mouth Punch is available on all platforms.

Belinda Carroll = Host

Stand-up comedian and Portland Queer Comedy Festival Founder/Director Belinda Carroll began stand-up comedy in late 2008 and has had the great pleasure of producing for and featuring in shows with — Kids in the Hall's Scott Thompson, Nico Santos, Guy Branum, ANT, James Adomian, Dana Goldberg, Jason Stuart, Sandra Valls, Julie Goldman and more.

In addition, Belinda has been seen on Portlandia, MTV, in various commercials, and for .0007 seconds of several TV shows.

As an activist, She was a co-organizer on the 2010 Butch Voices National Conference, a recipient of the 2011 Pride-in-Action award from Pride NW for her work on founding the Q Patrol; a community foot patrol to reduce LGBTQ hate crimes in downtown Portland, and has been head organizer of Portland Dyke March since 2011. She was awarded a Queer Hero award by GLAPN (Gay and Lesbian History Archives of the Pacific Northwest) in 2018, In 2020 she's honored to have been awarded the Woman of Achievement award from Gov Kate Brown and the State of Oregon. 

She has placed 3rd for 4 years in a row for Best Comedian in Portland in Willamette Week. Which makes her the Miss Congeniality of Portland Comedy. 

As a comedic writer, she has written for the anthology Persistence: All-Ways Butch/Femme, Curve Magazine, Huffington Post, Cracked.com, Portland Mercury, Willamette Week and PQ Monthly.

Chris Johnson

As one of the youngest rising comedians in Portland, Chris Johnson has been featured on stages all over the Northwest while being based in his hometown. In 2019, he was recognized as one of the top 5 comics in Portland by Willamette Week and was also a finalist in the very competitive ‘Portland’s Funniest Person’ competition at Helium Comedy Club. He’s a host and producer of many shows in Portland; a couple of which are widely regarded as staples to the local comedy scene. Every Wednesday at Mississippi Pizza Pub, you can find him co-hosting the best weekly comedy show in town, ‘DOUGH’, with his deadly funny entourage of hosts. You can also find Chris every 3rd Thursday at Ground Kontrol, where he is the most recent host and producer of ‘No Pun Intendo’, the longest running comedy showcase in Portland, founded nearly a decade ago by Ron Funches before all the fame and sharp haircuts. If you happen to go out to watch him perform, you’ll love Chris’s dry brand of humor if you grew up playing video games, watching anime, circumventing caucasity, or flunking out of your political science program in college.

Nariko Ott

Winner of the Portland's Funniest Person Contest 2016 and named one of SplitSider Magazine's "Top Up and Coming Comedians" in 2015, Nariko Ott is definitely a name you won't forget. He's been accepted into the Seattle International Comedy Competition, the Bridgetown Comedy Festival, The Beast Village Comedy Festival and the TreeFort Music Fest. He is the host of “The Cool Kids” comedy show at the legendary Doug Fir in Portland. Nariko was featured on EPIX’s “Unprotected Sets” as well as “Laughs” on FOX. He also had the great pleasure of opening for Kurt Braunholer on his Comedy Central special "Trust Me.” He hopes to one day kill someone with laughter and joy.

Naomi Fitter

Naomi Fitter escaped from Ohio at the age of 22. Her soothing midwestern voice has been described as "sexy," "librarian-like," and "nearly inaudible." She has opened for Bil Dwyer, Laurie Kilmartin, and Whitney Cummings and performed in the All Jane Comedy Festival. When she's not telling jokes, she spends time creating our future robot overlords.