THEATRE + COMEDY

The Improv Comedy Showcase and Restaurant presents Patrice Oneal,   June 26 - June 28.

Stand-up comedy has been the cornerstone of Oneal's career, and his first priority. He tours across the country performing stand-up comedy. He has had half-hour specials on Showtime, HBO (One Night Stand, Def Comedy Jam), and Comedy Central Presents, although he has never recorded an album or DVD of his own, preferring instead that fans attend his live show.

Oneal first began performing stand-up in college, and eventually developed a caustic, confrontational style, reflecting attitudes that Patrice himself describes as racist, sexist, and misogynistic. Despite this, he has never been considered a shock comic, instead taking a thoughtful, intellectual approach to these subjects.

Unwilling to compromise his act, Patrice found it difficult to find work at comedy clubs in the United States, so he relocated to the United Kingdom to work on his comedy there, where clubs were more permissive. Oneal fought hard to gain the respect of comics that often view American humor as coarse or sophomoric, eventually gaining the accolades of such personalities as Ricky Gervais, who mentions him as his favorite working American comic.

When Patrice Oneal was offered a half-hour comedy special on the Showtime Network in 2002, he returned to America, settling instead in the New York area. In the years that followed, Patrice would record several more television specials and other appearances, and has since become a successful headline act around the United States.

Still living in the New York area, he frequently performs at comedy clubs in the New York area, including Caroline's and the Stress Factory and the Comedy Cellar on occasion. Patrice has also been a part of Opie and Anthony's Traveling Virus Comedy Tour with other comedians in 2006 and 2007. He has made appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Late Show with David Letterman, and The Ellen DeGeneres Show.