Brandon Wardell hosts comedy show at The Satellite

Fans trickled into The Satellite, a live music venue in Silver Lake, Sunday night for drinks with a side of stand-up comedy from Brandon Wardell’s monthly show  “Brandon Wardell & Friends.” Illuminated by a single disco ball and filled with blue smoke, the small venue was taken over by young comedy fans eager to immerse themselves in an hour of humor.  

Wardell did not disappoint. After coming out onto the stage the first time, Wardell proceeded to recreate his opening after it failed to meet his standards, returning backstage for a moment. The second time, he hit it perfectly. Taking the stage to “Let’s Get It Started” by The Black Eyed Peas, Wardell looked like he was walking onto the stage of a packed Honda Center.  He maintained the same high energy throughout the set.  

Patron Nicole Weckerlin, a longtime fan of Wardell and some of the other comics featured, said the show was “absolutely incredible,” as the humor brought tears to her eyes.  

“The lineup killed and this venue is so inviting … anything goes,” Weckerlin said.  

Wardell captivated the audience with every word, covering a range of topics from sex to relationships to Elizabeth Warren’s viral TikTok and even Harry Potter. But a large portion of his jokes were centered around the current political climate, an issue that Wardell has been particularly vocal about on social media. Wardell carefully crosses the bridge between politics and comedy. 

“I’ll talk about political stuff here and there, but never in a way that’s like, ‘This is the point that I’m making,’” Wardell said in an interview before the show. “I actually kind of like for there to be some moral ambiguity to what I do. I feel like if you go to like a standup show of mine, I don’t want you to necessarily be walking away with like, ‘Oh, these are all the literal points he was making.’ I’m just making jokes.”

Wardell’s audience appreciated the escape he provided through his political satire, as evidenced by the laughter that bounced off the low-ceilinged walls. 

“It’s real life,” Weckerlin said. “It’s just relatable, and it’s universal, and we’re all in it together is what comics consistently show to their audience.”  

Wardell also invited fellow comedians from across the nation to join him for the show on Sunday, including John Early, Hannah Einbinder, Jamel Johnson, Andy Haynes, Aaron Chen, the Sklar Brothers, Yassir Lester, Andrew Michaan, Chloe Fineman, Kurt Braunohler and Cory Loykasek. It was a lineup that Wardell was proud of.  

“It’s always just a bunch of my friends and people that I’ve picked to perform, who I can personally vouch for,” Wardwell said. “A lot of times … I’m performing in places I can’t, in good conscience, tell people to go because, you know, sometimes the lineup is going to be half people that I think are not funny.”  

The audience certainly did not find the humor lacking. For Antonia Reynolds, who usually comes to the show with her brother, the best laughs came from Einbinder’s standup. 

“I loved it — it’s fucking awesome,” Reynolds said. 

Einbinder was a last-minute guest, according to Wardell, and was on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” March 6. 

Wardwell said he specifically picked the lineup to include a mix of comedic styles. Each comedian took the stage armed with jokes from different niches. For Loykasek, it was being a 35-year-old man with roommates. Einbinder talked about drugs after telling the audience she was “high as hell.” 

The Sklar Brothers shared the stage as they brought it up a notch by cracking jokes about kids and family life. Laughs erupted from the audience when the identical twin brothers poked fun at their childless friends who treat their pets like kids. 

“It’s not a kid if you can tie it up and go have brunch,” Randy and Jason Sklar joked.

The comedians kept it casual when they were not on stage; wandering around the venue, lingering at the bar and interacting with the audience. Many of the guests in the audience, like Josh Kay, came out to support their friends who were performing. Kay and his group of friends came to The Satellite for Loykasek, who was the closing act of the night.  

Kay said he was particularly a fan of the relevant topics brought up by the comics, such as the presidential election.   

“I think topical newsworthy content is the most accessible at the moment,” he said. “There’s so much going on right now.”

Comedy shows similar to this one will continue to take place, according to Wardell, who said he has new projects coming up but was not ready to reveal them just yet. He will continue recording his podcast “Yeah, But Still” with co-host Jack Wagner, but emphasized his true love lies in standup.

As for his other passion?  

“Bernie Sanders and not Joe Biden,” Wardell said.