Denver comedian is turning art museums into comedy in popular new series

I have to say that when I visited my first art museum recently, it was a bit too stuffy for me… Luckily, there’s a comedian from Denver that is making art museums a much lighter experience!

When Sammy Anzer took some comedian friends to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, they did what comedians do. They had opinions. Loud ones. In a very quiet gallery.

So he made a show out of it.

“Comedians Talk Art” is a web series — and now a live touring event — in which Anzer walks through fine art exhibitions with fellow comics, reacting to whatever is on the walls with unscripted, unfiltered honesty. Someone asks why artists paint “charcuterie set-ups” and learns the term is “still life.” Someone else stares down a piece of abstract expressionism and says what the rest of us are thinking. The result is part comedy special, part art education, and entirely unlike anything else happening in Denver’s cultural scene.

Anzer, a Queens, New York, native now based in Denver, brought the concept to the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver on April 1 as the culminating event in MCA’s “Laugh Your Craft Off” series. Tickets started at $32.77 for an evening that included a guided tour of the museum’s current exhibitions, a comedy show in the rooftop cafe, and a take-home craft — a combination that no one in the art world or the comedy world had thought to package together before Anzer came along.

The premise sounds like a gag, but Anzer’s approach is more nuanced than a roast. He engages with works genuinely, avoiding a disparaging tone, but refuses to stifle laughter just because the galleries are painted white. The series celebrates not-knowing as central to learning — treating a comedian’s honest confusion about a canvas as a legitimate entry point into art appreciation rather than something to be hushed.

The concept has legs beyond Denver. Anzer has brought the format to the Denver Art Museum, the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts and multiple galleries. Most recently, “Comedians Talk Art” was selected for showcase by the Yes And Laughter Lab in New York City, a program with sponsors including NBC, Netflix and Comedy Central.

The series also earned Anzer a distinction no stand-up comic had claimed before: he became the first comedian to receive the RiNo Arts Grant, a recognition typically reserved for visual artists, muralists and performers working in Denver’s River North Art District. The grant acknowledged the web series as a legitimate bridge between the art world and audiences who might never set foot in a gallery without a reason to laugh.

“Comedians Talk Art” episodes are available on Anzer’s YouTube channel. Future live events have not yet been announced, but if the MCA Denver show is any indication — two tour groups were needed due to gallery capacity — the demand is there.