Ty Barnett

Ty Barnett has solutions to the world’s many problems. The comedian’s stand-up routines include ways to reduce crime (if we raise gas prices, drive-by shootings will go down), do better in business (someone should try advertising on homeless people’s signs) and improve public safety (instead of using colors to denote the terror threat, we should use a system involving animals or types of STDs). Barnett, an L.A. transplant from Chicago, is one of the more intelligent and original comedians to come out of the Last Comic Standing ilk. He serves up familiar topics like politics and race relations, but with a common sense so keen that, after you stop laughing, you start to think he might be onto something. At a recent performance, he pointed out, “I don’t think we’ll have true racial harmony until other planets start invading. You think we look strange to each other now? Imagine a motherfucker with tentacles.”