Live Wire with Luke Burbank
Live Wire Radio is an independently produced radio show that artfully blends unpredictable conversation, live music, and original comedy featuring all types of cultural talent and creative minds, from emerging artists to established acts. Join host Luke Burbank and announcer Elena Passarello for a live recording of this popular radio show, heard nationwide by thousands of listeners every weekend. With special guests: – Atsuko Okatsuka is an award-winning comedian and actress making waves across the globe with her one-of-a-kind humor, boundless energy, and infectious charm. Her highly anticipated second stand-up special, Father, recently premiered on Hulu and internationally on Disney+, quickly climbing into the top ten on the streamer. Her previous special, The Intruder (HBO), won a Gracie Award for “Best Comedy Special” and was named a best special of 2022 by The New York Times, Vulture, and Variety. With viral moments as legendary as her stand-up (she and her grandmother created TikTok’s #DropChallenge), her unique style of comedy is captivating audiences worldwide. – John Craigie has mastered the art of creating live shows that feel more like intimate conversations than performances. Infusing humor, wit, and poignant storytelling, his shows make audience members feel like old friends. His latest live album Greatest Hits… Just Kidding… Live – No Hits captures the warmth and spontaneity of these memorable nights. As a tried-and-true performer, he has regularly sold out solo tours in addition to hitting the road with the likes of Langhorne Slim, Brett Dennen, Mason Jennings, Bella White and Jack Johnson. He has picked up fans with sets at Newport Folk Festival, Pickathon, Edmonton Folk Festival, and High Sierra Music Festival as well as numerous international tours. His catalog has garnered tens of millions of streams with favorites such as “I Am California,” “Highway Blood,” “Don’t Ask,” and “Microdose.” 2024’s Pagan Church with TK & The Holy Know-Nothings spent six weeks at #1 on Americana Radio Albums Chart. His 10th studio album, I Swam Here, is set for release on February 6, 2026. – Daisy Hernández is the author of The Kissing Bug, winner of the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and the inaugural title for the National Book Foundation’s Science + Literature Program. Her memoir, A Cup of Water Under My Bed, won Lambda Literary’s Dr. Betty Berzon Emerging Writer Award and was a Publishing Triangle Award finalist. She co-edited the classic feminist anthology Colonize This! and is an associate professor of creative writing at Northwestern University. Click HERE to purchase tickets to the March 19th show. Spring 2026 Season Passes are now on sale! Click here to buy.
Live Wire with Luke Burbank – Portland Book Festival Special
Join Emmy award-winning host Luke Burbank for the taping of Live Wire, the fastest growing entertainment show on public radio. We’ve got a late-night stride, an Oscar Wilde wit, and the charisma of Ferris Bueller grand marshaling a parade. Music, comedy, and conversation, live and packed with surprises.Featured Guests: TBA Tickets$30 General Admission$45 Preferred Seating (First 5 rows of Front Center Section – available in advance only) Click HERE for tickets. Doors open at 6:30 Guests subject to change.
Live Wire with Luke Burbank
Live Wire Radio is an independently produced radio show that artfully blends unpredictable conversation, live music, and original comedy featuring all types of cultural talent and creative minds, from emerging artists to established acts. Join host Luke Burbank and announcer Elena Passarello for a live recording of this popular radio show, heard nationwide by thousands of listeners every weekend. With special guests: – Cheryl Strayed is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, which was made into an Oscar-nominated film. Her bestselling collection of Dear Sugar columns, Tiny Beautiful Things, was adapted for a Hulu television show and as a play that continues to be staged in theaters nationwide. Strayed’s other books are the critically acclaimed novel, Torch, and the bestselling collection Brave Enough, which brings together more than one hundred of her inspiring quotes. Her books have sold more than 5 million copies around the world and have been translated into forty languages. – Earlonne Woods & Nigel Poor (EAR HUSTLE) Earlonne Woods was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles. In 1997, he was sentenced to 31 years to life in prison. While incarcerated, he received his GED, attended Coastline Community College, and completed many vocational trade programs. He also founded CHOOSE1, which aims to repeal the California Three Strikes Law, the statute under which he was sentenced. In 2017, he co-founded the prison-based podcast Ear Hustle, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and two-time Peabody Award nominee, among numerous other awards. Nigel Poor is an artist and podcast host whose work explores the ways people leave behind evidence of their existence. In 2011, Nigel got involved with San Quentin State Prison as a volunteer teacher for Mount Tamalpais College (formerly the Prison University Project). In 2017, she co-founded the prison-based podcast Ear Hustle. – Patterson Hood is a musician and songwriter living in Portland, OR, originally from Muscle Shoals, AL. In addition to playing in the band Drive-By Truckers, he is a solo artist. His first solo record in over a decade, Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams, was born out of a friendship with producer Chris Funk (The Decemberists). The pair would often perform together for fun and during Hood’s solo tours, making far-off plans to make a record together. They eventually went into Jackpot Studios in Portland. Many of the songs were composed on piano marking a bigger departure from his work with Drive-By Truckers than prior solo efforts. Click HERE to purchase tickets to the April 9th show. Spring 2026 Season Passes are now on sale! Click here to buy.
Live Wire with Luke Burbank
Live Wire Radio is an independently produced radio show that artfully blends unpredictable conversation, live music, and original comedy featuring all types of cultural talent and creative minds, from emerging artists to established acts. Join host Luke Burbank and announcer Elena Passarello for a live recording of this popular radio show, heard nationwide by thousands of listeners every weekend. With special guests: – Sarah Marshall is a writer, podcaster, and media critic focused on setting straight our collective memory—or at least getting to the bottom of why we believe and in turn define ourselves by popular narrative and myth. Why is the maligned woman a staple of our news media? Why do we believe that serial killers are brilliant? How do we keep stumbling into all these moral panics? These are some of the questions that propel Sarah forward. She is the host of the popular modern history podcast You’re Wrong About, which has been highlighted in The New Yorker, The Guardian, and Time Magazine. Her latest project, The Devil You Know, is an 8-part podcast with the CBC that explores the tangled web of the Satanic Panic and its continued impact in culture today. – Camille T. Dungy is the author of Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden. Soil was named book of the month by Hudsons Booksellers, received the 2024 Award of Excellence in Garden and Nature Writing from The Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries, and was on the short list for the PEN/Jean Stein Award. Dungy has also written four collections of poetry, including Trophic Cascade, winner of the Colorado Book Award, and the essay collection Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood, and History, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. – Angela Nissel is author of the national bestselling comedic memoirs The Broke Diaries and Mixed, and a prolific television producer and writer whose credits include The Other Black Girl, Mixed-ish, and Scrubs. Prior to her television career, she had illustrious careers as a temp for the IRS, a stripper, and a “sleep apnea auditor” watching people snore overnight in a local hospital. She lives in Los Angeles and enjoys beating people half her age in video games. In her new poignant and hilarious memoir, Angela chronicles her odyssey as she tries to remain “like her mother” in the face of grief. Delightfully self-deprecating, unsparing in its honesty, yet filled with wacky humor and joy, Good Grief, Pass the Bread, Mom is Dead, is an unforgettable portrait of love, yearning, loss, and resilience that reveals the indelible power of introspection to save our lives. Click HERE to purchase tickets to the May 14th show. Spring 2026 Season Passes are now on sale! Click here to buy.
Live Wire with Luke Burbank
Live Wire Radio is an independently produced radio show that artfully blends unpredictable conversation, live music, and original comedy featuring all types of cultural talent and creative minds, from emerging artists to established acts. Join host Luke Burbank and announcer Elena Passarello for a live recording of this popular radio show, heard nationwide by thousands of listeners every weekend. With special guests: – Jo Firestone is a comedian whose work can be seen on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Joe Pera Talks With You, High Maintenance, Shrill, and more. She’s the author of Murder on Sex Island and the forthcoming sequel, Sex on Murder Island, set to publish June 30, 2026. She can be heard on Maximum Fun’s Dr. Gameshow, a podcast she co-hosts with Manolo Moreno, and Comedy Central’s Everyday Decisions, a podcast she hosts all alone. Her album, The Hits, is available on Comedy Central Records, and if you like puns, check out Punderdome: A Card Game for Pun Lovers. Her special, Good Timing with Jo Firestone, featuring 16 senior citizens from her online comedy class, is out now on Peacock. – Jeff Chang’s first book, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, was named one of the best American nonfiction books of the last quarter century. He has been a USA Ford Fellow in Literature and, among numerous other honors, has won the American Book Award and the Asian American Literary Award. Chang has written three other acclaimed bestsellers on American history and culture, music, and the arts. In May 2019, he and director Bao Nguyen created a four-episode digital series adaptation of his award-winning book We Gon’ Be Alright for PBS’ Indie Lens Storycast. Chang was featured in Nguyen’s ESPN Bruce Lee documentary, Be Water; the PBS series, Asian Americans; and Lisa Ling’s CNN series, This Is Life. – Renowned for his live shows, Tyler Ballgame’s music is built on strong melodic hooks and draws subtle inspiration from the 60s and 70s, blending nostalgia and undeniable songcraft. Tyler’s stunning debut album For the First Time, Again is a bracing reminder of how great songs delivered by a gifted vocalist can move, captivate and inspire, it boasts 12 finely crafted tunes rooted in classic rock, indie, and Americana. Ballgame’s infectious melodies draw the listener into a story, and his message of belief in one’s true self resonates deep and wide. The album’s lead single, the rhapsodic Lennon-meets-Orbison “I Believe In Love” is out now, alongside the previously released “Got a New Car.” Click HERE to purchase tickets to the June 4th show. Spring 2026 Season Passes are now on sale! Click here to buy.
Live Wire with Luke Burbank
Live Wire Radio is an independently produced radio show that artfully blends unpredictable conversation, live music, and original comedy featuring all types of cultural talent and creative minds, from emerging artists to established acts. Join host Luke Burbank and announcer Elena Passarello for a live recording of this popular radio show, heard nationwide by thousands of listeners every weekend. Featured Guests: Aubrey Gordon is an author, columnist, and cohost of the podcast Maintenance Phase with journalist Michael Hobbes, where the two debunk and decode wellness and weight loss trends. Her work has been published in The New York Times, Vox, Literary Hub, SELF, Health, Glamour and more. Her first book, What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat was released in November 2020. Her second book, “You Just Need to Lose Weight” and 19 Other Myths About Fat People, is a New York Times and Indie bestseller. Kari Ferrell is a producer, writer, speaker, activist, and creator whose work is centered around prison reform and mental health. Her production company, Without Wax, is dedicated to uplifting and telling other stories from Women of Color, and she‘s working with Kaling International on a scripted show based on her life. Kari also supports various organizations like Second Chance Studios, Books Through Bars, the ACLU, and other advocacy groups. She lives in Brooklyn with her pup and her partner. Tickets $25 Student & Under 35$35 General Admission$50 Preferred Seating (First 5 rows of Front Center Section – available in advance only) $5 Arts For All – Oregon Trail or SNAP Benefit Card required for admission with Arts for All Tickets. For more details about the Arts for All program, visit: https://racc.org/artsforall/ Click HERE for tickets. Doors open at 6:30 Guests subject to change.
Great Comedy – Always a Great Night of Stand Up Comedy
Join your host Emily Hemson and some of Portland’s best local and regional stand up comedians for a night of comedy, prizes and a guaranteed great time!Featuring:Katie NguyenSir Lance EdwardKirsten KuppenbenderTanner TorkelsonBen HarkinsJulian GrayTICKETS:General Admission $20At the Door $28Preferred Seating $35 (seating in the first 7 rows of the center section) 21 and over onlyCLICK HERE for the latest information on our health and safety policies.
Gina Yashere: The Woman King of Comedy with special guest Mx. Dahlia Belle
Comedian Gina Yashere brings her fierce and funny comedic style back to the stage this summer with a new solo tour, The Woman King of Comedy. With the success of her hit TV sitcom Bob Hearts Abishola on CBS, that she co-created and stars in, this is a unique chance to hear her personal story of how she made it in Hollywood from the streets of London.Mx. Dahlia Belle opens the show. Tickets: $25 Advance$30 At the Door Minors ok when accompanied by a parent or guardian. Review our Health & Safety Policies HERE
A BETTER TRIP with Shane Mauss
Journey into the mind of a psychedelic astronaut with a consciousness-expanding comedy show that will leave you mesmerized. At the intersection of science and psychedelics comes A Better Trip, the latest work from Shane Mauss.Originally conceived for his springtime residency at AREA15 in Las Vegas–this hilariously heady event highlights Shane’s personal psychedelic experiences and examines the history, science, and culture of psychedelics … but wait, there’s more! It’s also accompanied by a HUGE display of mind-blowing visuals and custom animations that back the entire performance.About Shane MaussAward-winning comedian, science podcaster, and mental health advocate, Shane Mauss relentlessly integrates his life, interests, and imagination into his material. The result of that effort is content and live show experiences that are as authentic & thoughtful as they are entertaining & innovative.His Comedy Central “Tales From The Trip” videos have millions of views on YouTube, and his last SOLD-OUT tour (“A Good Trip”) inspired the documentary film “Psychonautics: A Comic’s Exploration of Psychedelics.” TV/Podcast Appearances include Kimmel, Conan, Showtime, WTF, You Made it Weird, Duncan Trussell’s Family Hour, and more.About The VisualsMichael Strauss is a VJ, digital artist, and event producer from Los Angeles who has crafted psychedelic audiovisual experiences and immersive environments for nearly 20 years.By improvising with technology and creativity, he has enhanced the live experience for countless artists by opening hearts, lifting spirits, and blowing minds with his stunning real-time visual work. Tickets: $25 GA Advance$30 GA At the Door$40 VIP with Preferred Seating (first 7 rows of the center section – available in advance only) 21 & over only Review our Health & Safety Policies HERE
Foil Arms & Hog
Ireland’s top sketch group are back in the USA! With over 200 million online views, including the viral hits ‘Getting past US Immigration’ and ‘When Irish People Can’t Speak Irish’, the group are best known for their online sketches, but it’s their live show that they are most proud of. The trio have achieved critical acclaim with the best reviewed show at the world’s largest arts festival The Edinburgh Fringe in 2018 and 2019. So stop hiding behind your laptop and come see them in real life for sketches, music and improvisation. If you don’t laugh they’ll buy you a pint.Presented by AEGMinors ok when accompanied by a parent or guardian. Review our Health & Safety Policies HERE