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Night of 1,000 Guffaws

By Scott Cullen
Concerts at the Crossing celebrates April Fools’ Day 13 days late on April 13 with Night of 1,000 Guffaws, an evening of smart, insightful, and ridiculous music and comedy with performances by Carla Ulbrich, Honor Finnegan, and Mark Allen Berube. 
Carla Ulbrich is a comical singer-songwriter and guitarist from Clemson, South Carolina who has gained a reputation on the acoustic music circuit as “The Professional Smart Aleck. She has released five CDs and is known for songs about such topics as Klingons, Waffle House, Wedgies, and how rich she’d be if she could copyright the F-word. Ulbrich has toured all over the U.S. and England and has appeared on USA TV, the BBC, Dr. Demento, Sirius XM Radio, and The Bob and Sherrie Show. 
Honor Finnegan has been described as the Susan Boyle of quirky indie folk, only hotter. Her songs are humorous, then heartbreaking with melodies that soar. Based in New York City, she has been making a splash in the northeastern regional folk scene with her original songs and ukulele playing. Combining elements of musical theatre, comedy, traditional folk, and poetry, Finnegan claims to be cooler than the other side of the pillow.
She was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago and learned to appreciate a variety of people and music living in a mostly African American neighborhood and sitting in the back seat of her single mother’s car listening to the radio for long periods of time. When she was 11 her dream of being an actress came true when she was cast in the first national tour of the musical Annie. After outgrowing Annie, Finnegan went back to Chicago, spending her early adult life studying improvisation with the legendary improvisational teacher and actor Del Close who created the play, Honor Finnegan vs. the Brain of the Galaxy to showcase her musical and comedic talents.
In 1991 Finnegan moved to Ireland. While living in Ireland, she sang with jazz bands, blues bands, big bands, and traditional Irish bands, including DeDannan for about a day. She released a cassette, Learning to Fly, in 1996 and was a finalist in the Paddy Music Expo in Limerick. Her song “Better Love Water” was sung on the Gay Byrne Radio Hour twice with the all-female a cappella group, “The Cappuccinos”. She moved to New York in 1998 and when not performing is a special education teacher.
Far more entertaining than any single human being with an acoustic guitar is allowed to be under current law, Mark Allen Berube is a performer who refuses to be anyone’s background music. His humorous songs have graced such New York rooms as Postcrypt Coffeehouse and the legendary Fast Folk Café, as well as multiple venues across the northeast. Berube was chosen as a finalist in the Minnesota Folk Festival’s New Folk contest and garnered two “Best Novelty Song” nominations at the 2001 Just Plain Folks Awards, although he bristles at the suggestion that he writes novelty songs. His tales of love, death, food, and things that annoy him are universal, whether he’s singing about his psychotic 12-year-old brother, the naked guy at the gym, or the girl with the Bride-of-Frankenstein hair.
Mark has released two solo CDS, the live, Shut Up so I can Play, and the studio produced Suspicious Fish, with full-band arrangements of his odes to love, death, and perversity.
Night of 1,000 Guffaws is appropriate for ages 14 and over.