Sometimes controversial comedian and actor T.J. Miller takes the stage Friday, July 20 and Saturday, July 21 at the Funny Bone in Liberty Township. A headlining comedian for years, he is perhaps better known as an actor thanks to his run on the hit TV series Silicon Valley. He left that show after two seasons much to the dismay of fans including Jimmy Kimmel who asked Miller about it last year on his talk show. Miler explained he simply wanted to spend more time with his wife in New York and that the plot presented a good exit point.
On stage, Miller’s act can be described as “contained silliness.”
“That’s a pretty good way of putting it,” he says. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard that exact phrase. I like to think that I’m a very polite maniac.”
Miller offers up a variety of comedy in his set. “There’s observational stuff, true stories, then there are things that are just absurdist notions,” he says.
Miller has been in the news in recent years for everything from calling in a fake bomb threat on an Amtrak train to allegedly assaulting an Uber driver over a disagreement about Donald Trump to allegations of sexual abuse while he was in college at George Washington University.
“People need a villain, and I’m occupying that space,” he told Vulture in an interview published in 2017. “Nobody right now is publicly the Lindsay Lohan–train wreck–but–not–quite person. If I’d just said it was an honor to work on Silicon Valley and was thankful to Alec Berg, I would have disappeared. Instead, by being just a little authentic, I infected the news cycle. …It’s more important to be polarizing than neutralizing. That’s my position.”
7:30 and 10 p.m. July 20; 7 and 10 p.m. July 21. $25-$55. 7518 Bales St., Liberty Township, liberty.funnybone.com.
This article appears in Jul 4-11, 2018.