COMEDY | ALBUQUERQUE
Social media comedy stars come to Route 66 Casino Hotel for ‘GenX Takeover’
Sherri Dindal, Jon Wellington, Nick Harrison and Kelly Manno join forces for a night of laughs, music and nostalgia
Get ready for a takeover as four Gen X social media comedy stars come to the Legends Theater at Route 66 Casino Hotel on Saturday, July 11.
“It’s more than a comedy show,” said Sherri “The Real Slim Sherri” Dindal.
Dindal said the show brings four headliners and a host to the stage, featuring comedy and variety show bits, mixed with music and nostalgia.
The headliners are Dindal and Jon “The Dadbod Veteran” Wellington, Nick “The Professor” Harrison and Kelly Manno. Dindal said all four touch on different facets of Generation X. In her early 50s, Dindal said, as the oldest member, she has a different angle from the others, like Manno, who is the youngest of the crew.
Wellington, she said, appeals to veteran and male audiences, while Harrison is their music guru, tapping into musical nostalgia.
“Something really magical happened when the four of us came together,” Dindal said, “because we really touch on a variety of different things in different ways, so we can find a way to relate to almost everybody in the audience.”
“What people can expect is to laugh a lot,” she said, “and have an opportunity to be around people that have shared experiences.”
Individually, they all began on social media with about 25 million followers between them, she said. One Labor Day weekend, she said, they all got together in Nashville, Tennessee, invited fans to a comedy show, and the rest was history.
“That comedy show turned into another and another, and then we ended up on a national tour,” Dindal said.
Dindal started on social media in 2021 while searching for something to do during the pandemic.
“I never imagined that I would reach so many people and that I would change so many lives and I get that a lot from people when I meet them,” Dindal said. “About how I impact their day, or make their lives better, or help them get through hard times. And so that is why I keep doing it.”
Her first viral video was about sounds Gen X hears. She woke up the next day to almost 40,000 new followers.
“I realized that I had tapped into this audience that I didn’t even know was out there, which was the Gen X audience,” Dindal said.
She said she quickly fell into creating Gen X content, but not all of it was comedic. She created videos featuring “taboo” topics, such as aging, menopause and her generation’s relationship with mental health.
Generation X, she said, doesn’t have the best relationship with vulnerability. At first some of the topics were challenging to cover, but Dindal slowly figured it out.
“I think the comedy, the humor that I infuse into my content, helps to cut down on the vulnerability,” Dindal said.
“I infuse a lot of truth, but also a lot of humor to go with it. I guess it makes it more palatable and easier for people to digest.”
While audiences for their shows tend to be on the older end, she said, it’s not surprising to see younger people whose family members have brought them along. She said they walk away with a better understanding of the person who brought them.
The wildness and surreality of the “GenX Takeover” tour hit Dindal around their sixth show last year. St. Louis was one of the first stops where they had gone from a 100-seater to a venue holding over 2,000 people, and the show was sold out.
“I never take it for granted every time I walk out on that stage and see all those people out there in the audience and feel the energy from the crowd …,” Dindal said. “It is just a feeling that if I could bottle it, I’d carry it around with me all the time.”
Elizabeth Secor is an arts fellow for the ϼ. You can reach her at esecor@abqjournal.com.