For veterans of the Denver comedy community hungry for something challenging and new, there’s a haven for the unconventional, the daring and the downright weird. It’s called Flea Market, a wildly inventive variety show that defies categorization, seamlessly blending standup, theater and performance art into a one-of-a-kind experience.

Hosted by the dynamic duo Rach Angard and Jared McBain, Flea Market is not just a show; it’s a celebration of the extraordinary, an exploration of the bizarre and a platform for artists to push boundaries and redefine comedy.

“If you’ve experienced the traditional scene and want to expand your horizons, Flea Market is for you,” Angard says. “Flea Market is for the freaks, the geeks, the weirdos and the beardos. It’s for people who shop at Goodwill rather than Target. If you compulsively refuse to finish your college degrees, you’ll fit right in. This show is for anyone out there who has an estranged relationship with their fathers, but in a way that’s interesting and complex. Also, definitely come if you are hot.”

In 2021, as the world gradually reopened after the pandemic, Rach Angard and Jared McBain decided to host a show together in a friend’s backyard.  
Courtesy of Flea Market” class=”uk-display-block uk-position-relative uk-visible-toggle”> click to enlarge

In 2021, as the world gradually reopened after the pandemic, Rach Angard and Jared McBain decided to host a show together in a friend’s backyard.

Courtesy of Flea Market

The idea for Flea Market began in Angard’s old apartment, where she and McBain were living along with several other local improvisers. “I started doing improv in the fall of 2019, and it quickly became everything to me,” Angard recalls. “I didn’t do it for very long before everything shut down, but a few of us just decided to become very close right away. Jared and I were part of a group that decided to do COVID together, and it was during that time that I truly began to understand comedy by being around people who were funnier than me.”

McBain has been active in local improv since he discovered it was an escape for him in high school. He loved the feeling he got from making others smile, and even moved to Chicago to try to break into the city’s competitive scene.

“Ever since I returned home from Chicago, I feel like things have shifted for me artistically,” McBain says. “I felt like I had done the big improv route, and now I’m interested in getting into the scene by creating things that are so specifically myself, which is pretty off-beat and improvisational.” 

In 2021, as the world gradually reopened after the pandemic, Angard and McBain decided to host a show together as an outlet for their creative impulses. Traditional comedy and theater venues were still closed, so they hosted their Flea Market in a friend’s backyard during Pride month as a fundraiser for the Center on Colfax. The experience was a whirlwind of free drinks, free laughter and unexpected donations.

“I distinctly remember a moment from that first show where I was standing in the back against the door looking at the show and I just started crying,” recalls McBain. “It was so special. We had at least fifty people at the show, and we heard similar things about the experience from them.”

“Flea Market is dripping with sincerity in a way that is unbelievable,” Jared McBain says. “It’s our little slice of magic in Denver.”  
Courtesy of Flea Market” class=”uk-display-block uk-position-relative uk-visible-toggle”> click to enlarge

“Flea Market is dripping with sincerity in a way that is unbelievable,” Jared McBain says. “It’s our little slice of magic in Denver.”

Courtesy of Flea Market

The success of their first show during Pride was an emotional revelation for the creators. Surrounded by friends and strangers, the atmosphere crackled with a unique energy, leaving a lasting impact on everyone involved. “It felt special immediately,” Angard shared. Flea Market became a space where performers could showcase their most unconventional acts; clowns, experimentalists and non-traditional comedians finally found their stage.

The two hosted one more show in a friend’s backyard in October 2021, but they quickly learned their lesson about the unpredictability of Colorado’s weather. “That show was so cold. It was honestly a mistake, but that show was nuts,” Angard says. “After that, we realized we should be doing this at a venue. We drew up a list of places we liked and decided on Grandma’s House. I emailed them, saying that we would love to talk about doing a monthly show at your venue.”

Over time, the show’s format evolved; Flea Market now happens at Forest Room 5, but each performance remains a celebration of the wonderfully weird. The event is specifically geared toward those who want to enter Denver’s comedy scene but are not sure where their unique voices would fit in.

“We realized that we needed to carve out our own space where we could perform something wild, like a set about a bag of wigs,” explains McBain. “I can’t exactly do ‘Bag of Wigs’ on the Comedy Works stage right now — although I would love to someday!”

The producing duties of Flea Market are evenly split between Angard and McBain. Angard tackles communication with performers, ticket posting and door management, while McBain handles promotion and social media.

“We run the show together,” Angard says. “We sandwich the show with music, so it starts and ends the show. After the music, Jared and I will go out to warm the crowd up by being ourselves. Then we will have performers come up and do their sets, with Jared and I performing in between each one as well.”

This October’s monthly offering of Flea Market showcases the musical magic of Baby Baby, coupled with the comedic brilliance of Katie Falcongrove, Evan Joe and Rachel Crowe. As always, the show champions a cause close to their hearts, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting EarthLinks, an organization providing job opportunities for older adults experiencing homelessness.

This October’s monthly offering of Flea Market features the musical magic of Baby Baby, coupled with the comedic brilliance of Katie Falcongrove, Evan Joe and Rachel Crowe.  
Courtesy of Flea Market” class=”uk-display-block uk-position-relative uk-visible-toggle”> click to enlarge

This October’s monthly offering of Flea Market features the musical magic of Baby Baby, coupled with the comedic brilliance of Katie Falcongrove, Evan Joe and Rachel Crowe.

Courtesy of Flea Market

When asked to whom they would recommend Flea Market, Angard quips, “Mitch McConnell. I think he would really enjoy our show.”

“We’ve actually reached out to his team to try to book him for the show,” McBain jokes. “Every time you see those videos where Mitch McConnell goes silent, that’s him receiving our email.”

Flea Market isn’t just a comedy show; it’s a testament to the power of authenticity, a celebration of the unconventional, and a reminder that art knows no boundaries. For those seeking a night of unbridled creativity where laughter mingles with the unexpected, Flea Market at Forest Room 5 on Thursday, October 26, is an experience not to be missed.

“It’s so cool to be able to do a show with one of your best friends,” Angard admits. “We learned to speak the same language, both as friends and in the show. I’m going to say something insane, but you know how sometimes you say you want to make a baby with somebody, so it could have half of you and half of me? Flea Market is that for me and Jared. It feels very special, and I think that’s because Jared and I just adore each other. We see the best in each other, and everybody that we bring on and like is ironically non-cynical. We earnestly love this, each other, art and comedy so much.”

McBain nods in agreement, his eyes sparkling with excitement. “And I agree,” he says. “Flea Market is dripping with sincerity in a way that is unbelievable. It’s our little slice of magic in Denver.”

Flea Market, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, October 26, Forest Room 5, 2532 15th Street. Get tickets at eventbrite.com.

Paris+ par Art Basel’s second edition, highlighting the city’s cultural vitality and its growing stature in the global art market, has concluded. With 154 premier galleries, including 61 in France, the event showcased the country’s thriving art scene. It featured a diverse public program in collaboration with renowned cultural institutions across six Parisian locations. This edition welcomed 15 new galleries from Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Held at the Grand Palais Éphémère from October 20 to 22, 2023, the fair drew 38,000 attendees. The next edition will take place at Art Basel’s permanent venue—the iconic (renovated) Grand Palais—from October 18 to 20, 2024.

Here are some highlights from this year’s Paris+ par Art Basel:

Mark Rothko, Olive Over Red (1956), Pace Gallery

In Paris, the art scene is abuzz with a retrospective of Mark Rothko’s 115 works at Fondation Louis Vuitton, the first comprehensive exhibit in France since 1999, featuring loans from esteemed institutions worldwide. Simultaneously, Paris+ par Art Basel presented a notable Rothko piece, “Olive over Red” (1956), available for $40 million through Pace Gallery. Another valuable Rothko, “Untitled (Yellow, Orange, Yellow, Light Orange)” from 1955, is now at Christie’s, estimated at $45 million (after not being sold for $60 million at Art Basel in June).

Sarah Sze, Many A Slip (2023), Victoria Miro Gallery

Sarah Sze, born in Boston in 1969 and currently based in New York, is an acclaimed artist. She represented the United States at the 2013 Venice Biennale and received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2003. Her works are showcased in esteemed museums globally, including Tate in the UK, M+ Museum in Hong Kong and The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Sze’s art is also part of permanent collections at renowned institutions such as the Guggenheim Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Notably, she has contributed public installations to locations like the High Line, Second Avenue Subway Station and LaGuardia Airport in New York.

Rashid Johnson, Untitled Broken Men (2023)

Born in Chicago in 1977, Rashid Johnson is a prominent contemporary American artist. His diverse practice spans photography, sculpture, painting, drawing, film and installation. Johnson explores themes such as art history, cultural identities, personal narratives, literature, philosophy, materiality and critical history, using a wide range of materials imbued with symbolism and personal significance. In his Surrender Paintings, Rashid Johnson continues to delve into the Anxious Men motif. These works feature ghostly faces rendered in Titanium White oil paint on raw linen, evoking a sense of acceptance and reconciliation. Johnson deliberately restricts the palette to white on raw linen, creating an aura of redemption and acknowledgment. These new series offer a simplicity and quiet resonance that echo the collective experiences of recent months.

Ed Rusha, Huge Conditions (2007), Gladstone Gallery

Ed Ruscha’s “Huge Conditions” (2007) is a standout among his works characterized by expansive landscapes overlaid with text. To achieve the photorealistic effect seen here, Ruscha initially applied a thin layer of paint directly to the canvas, refining details with precise acrylic brushwork. The distinctive font used for the text, named “Boy Scout Utility Modern” by the artist, features straight lines without curves. The typeface’s wide spacing and Ruscha’s deliberate lateral composition enhance its square, straight quality, making it a striking example of the iconic style he developed in the 1980s.

From New York to Paris: Windy by Meriem Bennani for Audemars Piguet Contemporary

Meriem Bennani’s dynamic sculpture, “Windy” (2022), presented by Clearing and co-commissioned by High Line Art and Audemars Piguet Contemporary, was on display in Paris’s Jardin des Tuileries from October 17 to 22. This artwork was part of a featured piece in “La Cinquième Saison” (“The Fifth Season”), a public exhibition organized by Paris+ par Art Basel and the Musée du Louvre. Curated by Annabelle Ténèze, the incoming director of the Louvre Lens Museum, this exhibition was part of Paris+ par Art Basel’s 2023 public program, spanning six locations across the French capital.

Gaetano Pesce, Double Heart (2022)

A design luminary, Gaetano Pesce drew inspiration from his 1969 lamp design to craft a monumental sculpture in 2022. The recurring motif of the pierced double heart features prominently in his artwork. It encapsulates a core tenet of Pesce’s artistic philosophy, emphasizing contemporary engagement with the exuberance and romance found in objects and people. Placed at the garden entrance, the pierced hearts symbolize deep poetry and hint at life’s uncertainties and potential tragedies.

Pesce’s rich background includes studying architecture, founding the “N” Group in 1959, and pioneering innovative materials and shapes in design since 1962. His work graces over 30 prestigious national and international museum collections, from MoMA to the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Dylan Solomon Kraus, Untitled City In The Sky (2023), Peres Projects

Dylan Solomon Kraus, born in 1987, employs mythical symbols and geometric shapes in his artistic practice, offering a fresh perspective on pastoral nightscapes featuring celestial elements. He has held solo exhibitions at various prestigious venues, including Almine Rech in London, Peres Projects in Seoul and Milan, Mamoth in London and Entrance in New York. Additionally, Kraus has contributed to numerous group exhibitions in New York, such as Europa, Jack Hanley and Tramps, and was recently featured in a group exhibition at Hoffmann Maler Wallenberg in Nice.

Guerlain, Les Fleurs Du Mal Exhibition

As an official Paris+ par Art Basel Partner, Maison Guerlain presents from October 18 to November 13, 2023, “Les Fleurs du Mal,” an exhibition paying homage to Charles Baudelaire’s poetry. This tribute aligns with Maison Guerlain’s 170th-anniversary celebration of the “Bee Bottle,” created for Empress Eugénie, a poetry enthusiast. Baudelaire’s “Les Fleurs du Mal” once provoked fascination and outrage, leading to his trial, where the Empress intervened on his behalf.

Beyond history, Maison Guerlain explores the connection between nature and artistic creation, delving into the dualities of flowers. Each exhibit reflects on existence’s fragility, prompting contemplation of life, death and transcendence.

Curated by Hervé Mikaeloff, the 16th annual contemporary art exhibition features 26 artists worldwide. They interpret the theme using various artistic media, with some creating pieces exclusively for the event. For Mikaeloff, it was very important to bring different generations, genders and nationalities of artists together, to create contrast, vibrancy and curiosity. What’s beautiful is that all these artworks harmonize so perfectly despite their differences—or maybe because of their contrasts. What a beautiful purpose.

Maison Guerlain’s tradition as an art patron since 1828 continues, fostering creative dialogues with painters, designers, sculptors and photographers. Through “Bee Art by Guerlain,” they champion art’s role in addressing pressing issues, supporting ecological awareness and artistic engagement. This event offers a platform for emerging and established artists, contributing to the international contemporary art scene.

Art & Environment Prize

In addition, Lee Ufan Arles and Maison Guerlain have awarded the Art & Environment Prize to Djabril Boukhenaïssi for its inaugural edition. Chosen from 381 applicants and five finalists by a jury of esteemed cultural figures presided over by Lee Ufan, the winner will enjoy six to eight weeks of residency support followed by a solo exhibition in Lee Ufan Arles’ Espace MA in the summer of 2024. This museum, located in the city center, showcases Lee Ufan’s work while nurturing contemporary art and cultural interactions.

The prize offers visibility and career opportunities and opens doors for collaboration with Maison Guerlain. Boukhenaïssi’s art explores disappearance and fragility, weaving evanescent memories into personal and collective narratives. Following his studies at Beaux-Arts de Paris in Djamel Tatah’s studio, he established his studio for engraving and painting in the Normandy countryside, inspired by the starry night’s boundless muse for his artistic and philosophical musings.