A regular on 'The Bob & Tom Show,' Kenny Smith has been a fixture on college campuses for several years now and is starting to become a draw at comedy clubs across the country. Check him out at Go Bananas Thursday through Sunday.  

“My style’s kind of one-liners like the old guys, like Rodney Dangerfield,” says comedian “Uncle” Larry Reeb, “but I’m more twisted and sicker than that, and that comes more from George Carlin. It’s kind of a combination of those two. The “Uncle” handle came years ago, when after a joke he quickly added the tag “some advice from your Uncle Lar,” and it just stuck.  

Costaki Economopoulos bills himself as "the biggest name in show business," but there's more to this stand-up comic than clever wordplay. Known for his political and current events humor, Costaki has found himself drifting more toward domestic comedy these days: With the birth of his daughter came many more opportunities for laughs. Economopoulos performs at Go Bananas Thursday through Sunday.  

Comedian Darren Carter has always seemed like a bit of an outsider. "Yeah, I'm a rebel," he says, laughing. "I think that was essentially true earlier in my life, growing up. As a redhead you are an outsider." Carter performs Thursday through Sunday at Funny Bone on the Levee in Newport.   

Mike Birbiglia feels that when he first started in stand-up, he oscillated somewhere between two of his idols, Mitch Hedberg and Richard Pryor. He has gradually moved away from short observational gags, though, and into compelling and hilarious storytelling. He performs at Go Bananas Thursday-Sunday.  

"There's a really good stand-up comedy scene around here," says comic Brad Thacker. "There are probably 15-20 (nationally recognized) comics I could name off the top of my head ... that hail from here." Indeed, names like Josh Sneed, Greg Warren, Gary Owen, Kat Williams and many more have ties to the Tristate. To showcase the next wave, Thacker has put together a free show called Hackamania. 10:30 p.m. Friday at Mayday.  

One of the first to embrace so-called "observational" humor in the '70s, David Brenner's quick wit spawned a legion of like-minded comics. A fixture on TV ever since, he holds the record for the most talk show appearances in the history of that medium. "If I go over to the cashier (at a restaurant) and say, 'I've been on television talk shows more than any other entertainer in the history of television,' she would say 'That'll be $32.14,'" he says with a laugh. "That's what it comes down to."  

Over the years David Brenner has proven to be one of the most influential comics in America. One of the first to embrace so-called “observational” humor in the 1970s, his quick wit spawned a legion of like-minded comics. A fixture on TV ever since, he holds the record for the most talk show appearances in the history of that medium. He performs Thursday at the Mayerson JCC.  

"Most of what I do … comes from pain or anger," muses Kettering native Drew Hastings. "I think that's what tends to drive my stuff. And then I probably tend to look at the human condition using me as an example." His comedy comes from his own experiences in the world and not as a detached observer peering at us through his trademark large black glasses. He performs at Go Bananas Thursday-Sunday.  

Comedian and sketch performer Mike Cody wants to be the next Lorne Michaels, but he didn't realize it until he was few months into a project known as Underbelly. Featuring area comics doing "everything but stand-up," the show marks its one year anniversary on Tuesday. Each Tuesday for the past year, this loose affiliation of comedians — some from as far away as Columbus and Lexington — have held court in the Southgate House Parlour. 9:30 p.m.