<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1GkoWY_1H1tqW5600" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1GkoWY_1H1tqW5600" width="612" height="600" ><figcaption>Ray Harrington</figcaption></figure>The Newport Comedy Series has sourced talent from New England to the Midwest and California. On Nov. 21 at the Elks Lodge, it will stay close to home. Ray Harrington, who lives in Warwick, will headline, with Billy Garan joining him. “I think the Rhode Island comedy scene is great,” Harrington said. “The Rhode Island Comedy Connection; that’s my home club.”He said the Providence club is revered by some of the biggest names in comedy today, including Matt Rife, who will make his second appearance there in as many years this month. The club’s success, in part, could be attributed to Harrington’s early career. In 2011, Harrington was determined to become a full-time comedian, shortly after moving from Maine to Rhode Island. With his wife’s support, he took the leap, “‘Let’s give it a year,’” he recalled them saying. There, he found the Comedy Connection and its new owners, Cory Brailsford and David Fiorillo. “We really embraced the risks to be taken in that club,” Harrington said. “It was a beautiful thing, that we could come up together.” <figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3Mr1jm_1H1tqW5600" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3Mr1jm_1H1tqW5600" width="211" height="285" ></figure>He watched the audience at the club’s weekly show grow consistently. Quickly, his year-long comedy experiment became a career. “It was kind of immediate,” he said. “To have a regular, weekly show where we were all trying to be the best comedian we could be, and push each other to be funnier.” Harrington said his 2020 appearance on Conan O’Briens late-night show marked a career turning point. “I didn’t feel like a real stand-up comedian until I did a late-night show,” he said. “It was my own personal measurement for that.” National audiences got to know Harrington in his 2016 Hulu documentary, “Be a Man,” detailing his anxiety about his then impending parenthood, and wrestling with the ideals of manliness and fatherhood. Harrington grew up without a father figure. In the documentary, he scours Rhode Island attempting to learn what it takes to be a “modern man. He looks for a signature cocktail and drives his dream car, and gets in the ring with five-time world champion boxer Vinny Pazienza. “I got punched in the head pretty hard. I’m glad I did it. I wouldn’t want to do it again” he said. “The fact that the movie got distribution and we made it to Hulu, it’s incredible,” Harrington said. “It’s a Rhode Island project.” Tickets for show are available at southcoastcomedy.com and at the door.</div></body>

Block Source: newportthisweek.com

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The Newport Comedy Series has sourced talent from New England to the Midwest and California. On Nov. 21 at the Elks Lodge, it will stay close to home. Ray Harrington, who lives in Warwick, will headline, with Billy Garan joining him. “I think the Rhode Island comedy scene is great,”...

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The Newport Comedy Series has sourced talent from New England to the Midwest and California. On Nov. 21 at the Elks Lodge, it will stay close to home. Ray 

The Case For Rhode Island Comedy

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