This spring, Dane Cook will undergo a large scale arena comedy tour that includes a June 5 stop at Seattle’s KeyArena, the comedian’s publicist announced today.

Cook – who has starred in two popular HBO specials and movies "My Best Friend’s Girl," "Mr. Brooks" and “Good Luck Chuck” – will launch his tour with a two-night stand in Uncasville, Conn., on April 5 and 6.

Ticket are $30 to $100, and Ticketmaster will start selling them to the general public at 5 p.m. Friday (March 13).

Comedian Lisa Lampanelli, a.k.a. the Lovable Queen of Mean, a.k.a. that woman you see dishing out the lowest blows on all those Comedy Central roasts, will bring her politically incorrect style of humor to Tacoma. She’ll headline the Temple Theatre at 7 p.m. on April 3, Live Nation announced today. Tickets are $37.75 and will go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday (Feb. 6). Find out more here.

CHRIS PIZZELLO/AP

You’ve seen Bill Engvall on "The Blue Collar Comedy Tour" and "The Bill Engvall Show." And Saturday, the Texas-bred funny man will headline the Tacoma Dome with a set of homespun humor. Recently, I caught up with the guy for a phone interview, and here are a few clips:

Part 1: Getting in trouble for jokes about his family, his ties to Grit City

Part 2: His new material, empty nesting

Part 3: The complex he developed from Blue Collar Comedy

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“Hey, it’s Paul Brogan coming live from Tacoma, Washington.”

It’s a familiar intro if you ever check out those hilarious sports raps from MySpace’s super fan, a guy who allegedly resides here in Grit City. But I started to get suspicious when the guy claimed, in one clip, that his favorite players are Steve Nash and Kobe Bryant. Huhn? Whazzupwitdat? Didn’t he say he was a Sonics fan?

So I did some cyber-sleuthing and came across this site, with contact info for hiring musical comedy duo Ben & Eric, who appear to be based in

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I was just goofing off and thumbing through a promo copy of book called “Is It Just Me or Is Everything @#%@?” that Grand Central Publishing mailed our way. It’s basically a snarky dictionary of stuff that hilariously cynical and mean-spirited authors Steve Lowe, Alan McArthur and Brendan Hay find insanely annoying. I know, why didn’t any of us think of that? And lo and behold, what do I spy under “alt-country” but a hilarious Ryan Adams story I remember first reading about in a review a few years back.

Alt-country: Isn’t hip-hop the

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Serni Solidarios, the student programs director over at UPS, sent me this show update this afternoon:

The temporary closure of the UPS Fieldhouse is going to benefit all ticketholders for the Colin Mochrie & Brad Sherwood "Whose Line Is It Anyway" show (Sept. 27) because they will now get to enjoy it in the cozy Schneebeck Concert Hall. The 8pm show is nearly sold out, and a second show will then be added at 930. Tickets are still available for the public through all Ticketmaster locations.

“The Rocker” is coming out this month (on Aug. 20, according to the folks at Fandango.) And while I haven’t gotten much better at editing video in Final Cut Pro, I think its imminent release is as good a reason as any to, I don’t know, finally post that Rainn Wilson interview footage I’ve been promising. This interview was done backstage at the Gorge during Sasquatch Festival. And while the clip is a bit longer than what I normally post, it has some funny payoff moments with Wilson talking about kissing Christina Applegate, growing up near Seattle and

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And now my first bit of useless comedy trivia. Q: Who was the first guy to ever host “Saturday Night Live,” back in 1975? A: George Carlin. And as a tribute to the comedian, who died of heart failure Sunday, NBC will air that first episode Saturday at 11:30 p.m.

“You never forget the people who were there at the beginning,” producer Lorne Michaels said in a statement released this afternoon by NBC. “George Carlin helped give ‘Saturday Night Live’ its start as our first host. He was gracious, fearless, and most important of all, funny.”

Anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that I drop several of the “seven words you can never say on television” in most casual conversations. But as a tribute to the late George Carlin, I propose that we all double up on our foul language today. Are you @%#@%@@#@ people with me? Meanwhile, you can read the obit Reuters ran by clicking the link.

There’s also a cool You Tube clip here that sheds light on the mind of Carlin, actually an excerpt from the audio version of his book

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Surprise, surprise! Chris Rock was hilarious last night at the Paramount Theatre, the first half of a sold-out, two-night stand there. He did lots of political material, as you might expect in an election year. And I went with pop culture writer Bill Hutchens who observed that Rock had maybe mellowed a bit with age; he never reached the shrill outrage of the “who ate daddy’s big piece of chicken?” routine from a few years back. But the guy has still got it. My only regret was that I read that blasted April 3 Rolling Stone cover story on

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