“Folks!” If you’ve ever heard this at the beginning of a YouTube video, you’d know you’re watching Kurtis Conner. Conner is a Vine-comedian-turned-YouTube-commentary creator and stand-up comedian from Canada. His YouTube channel has over 4 million subscribers, with video topics that range from low-budget movies to bizzare TikTok trends. Conner is part of a growing comedy commentary culture on YouTube alongside Cody Ko, Noel Miller, Danny Gonzalez and Drew Gooden. 

After going on the “We Are Two Different People Tour” with Gonzalez and Gooden in 2019, Conner did some individual stand-up gigs throughout the pandemic. Now Conner embarks on his own tour, “Kurtis Conner Live!” with his best friends, Jacob Sharpe and Dean Hebscher as warm-up acts. The tour started in June, taking the trio across the United States and part of Canada to share some silliness with their adoring fans. Unlike the “We Are Two Different People Tour,” Conner’s show is exclusively stand-up comedy.

The show was on Sept. 18 at the beautiful State Theater in Minneapolis. It started with a recording telling the audience not to heckle the comedians, not to take videos and to turn phone ringers off. I knew it would be a funny show when, in the recording, the monotone voice said things like “poggers,” a joke that Conner uses frequently. 

After the announcement, Sharpe’s set started. Sharpe recently beat brain cancer and is very open and humorous about his journey. Because of this, his entire set was brain cancer jokes. Luckily, Sharpe warned the audience of this beforehand and assured us that we were allowed to laugh. I was conflicted during Sharpe’s set, because I felt bad for laughing at his jokes about chemotherapy, but they were so funny! Despite Conner being the headline act for the show, Sharpe’s stage presence and energy made him a stand out of the night.

Following Sharpe was Hebscher, whose humor was different from Sharpe’s but just as clever. Hebscher mainly told crazy personal anecdotes, in a similar fashion to John Mulaney, but with his own twist. Although I thought the stories and their associated jokes were incredibly funny, I thought they would be even more hilarious if Hebscher tweaked his timing. One thing I really appreciate about Hebscher’s stand-up is his authenticity. He doesn’t try to play a character to please the audience — he delivers his true personality on stage. In this way, Hebscher’s set felt less like a comedian performing for a crowd, and more like a friend telling an outrageous story. 

Conner was after Hebscher, but by then my mouth was already sore from smiling and laughing so hard. A big aspect of Conner’s set was integrating some of his classic jokes from his videos into his in-person stand-up punchlines. Of course he did it flawlessly, and I — along with everyone in the theater — loved it. Because prior knowledge of his jokes is needed, though, many of his references wouldn’t be understood by someone who didn’t watch Conner’s YouTube. However, the same could be said for a person going to a concert of an artist they don’t listen to, where they wouldn’t know any of the songs. Another crossover between Conner’s videos and his show was that he wrote a song. He didn’t sing the song live, but rather interacted with a recording of a voice over. Conner has a history of writing songs that correspond with a video topic, so this bit fits his comedic persona. Not only was Conner’s set funny and familiar, but I could tell that he has become more comfortable doing stand-up since his 2019 performance. It was interesting to watch his stage presence mature and become more unique over the last three years. 

Overall, as a fan of all three comedians and of stand-up comedy in general, I had a blast at this show. Although “Kurtis Conner Live!” only had one appearance in Minnesota, Conner said the trio plans to return someday soon. In the meantime, fans will just have to settle for their hysterical videos.

‘Kurtis Conner Live!’: ★★★★★