By Bobby Tanzilo Senior Editor/Writer Published May 10, 2021 at 9:00 AM

Long an established favorite at the Riverside and Pabst Theaters, comedian Jim Gaffigan helps get life going again with a pair of show at the Riverside in November, The Pabst Theater Group announced today.

Gaffigan brings his 2021 The Fun Tour to the Wisconsin Avenue showhouse Wednesday, Nov. 24 and Friday, Nov. 26, at 7 p.m.

Tickets go on sale Friday, May 14 at noon.

The Fun Tour is a mix of new shows and gigs rescheduled from the disaster that was 2020.

Gaffigan and his family have made no secret of their appreciation of Brew City and in 2018, he performed the first comedy show at the Fiserv Forum.

Gaffigan has a reputation as a “clean” comic and much of his material derives from his life as a husband and as the dad of five children.

The Illinois native has been nominated six times for Grammy Awards and is also an actor, writer, producer and recording artist. He is a regular commentator on “CBS Sunday Morning.”

The Emmy Award winner recently became the first comedian to reach a billion Pandora streams and he is set to have the lead role in a new Sci-Fi dramedy called  “Linoleum,” and will star as Mr. Smee in Disney’s “Peter Pan and Wendy,” and in Disney/Pixar’s “Luca,” due out in June.

Marathon bouts of streaming Gaffigan specials also helped this writer get through the early months of the pandemic last year.

Bobby Tanzilo Senior Editor/Writer

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.

He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.

With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.

He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.

In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.

He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.