From Timberwolves to State Fair werewolves: Joe Mande’s comedy special makes many Minnesota connections
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Joe Mande’s new comedy special, “Chill” (streaming on Hulu), opens with drone footage of Minneapolis. It floats over the 100-foot Prince mural downtown and a frozen Minnehaha Falls, overlaid with clips of weather reports of negative temperatures.
Finally, it settles on the Parkway Theater in south Minneapolis, where the hour was filmed in January 2024.
“Minnesota in January. I’m an idiot. What am I doing here? What are you doing here?” Mande says, opening the special.
What is Mande doing here? The L.A.-based comedian has written for and/or starred in “Parks and Recreation,” “Kroll Show” and “The Good Place.” He recently finished up in the HBO Max writers’ room for the upcoming “Hacks” season, the Golden Globe-winning show about standup comedy.
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Mande knew he wanted to shoot his special in the Twin Cities. He grew up in St. Paul after moving with his family from New Mexico when he was 10. Here, he attended Central High School. Mande says Minneapolis has a reputation as a “good comedy town.”
In recent years, several nationally touring comedians have filmed specials here, Mande says, citing Hannibal Burress and Pete Holmes, both of whom filmed at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis (in 2015 and 2023, respectively), and Rory Scovel, who shot his special at the Goodale Theater in late 2023.
“It’s just a great place to perform, no matter what form of art you’re doing,” Mande says. “When I was working on the hour, I just realized how much of Minnesota was coming up, whether I was talking about the Timberwolves or the State Fair.”
In his set Mande talks about being a basketball obsessive and longtime Timberwolves fan.
“They’ve been bad my whole life but this year they’re very good and it’s very exciting,” Mande says in the special. “A lot of that is due to this guy on the Timberwolves, this guy named Anthony Edwards. He’s so good at basketball and he’s such a muscular boy. I love him.”
Mande tells MPR News that when he moved to the Twin Cities as a kid, he was so excited to live in a city with professional sports.
“When we landed in Minnesota, I think the first thing we did was go to Kohl’s or something and just buy a bunch of Wolves and Vikings gear. I was so psyched,” Mande says.
The State Fair also makes a significant appearance in “Chill.” Mande recounts how the only time he has been “beat up” in his whole life was at the fair’s haunted house. In high school, he and his buddies had a tradition of openly critiquing the haunted house as they walked through.
“Just four boys criticizing the lighting, the set design, the acting,” Mande says in the special. On a visit to the fair his senior year of high school, the guy playing the werewolf was giving a lackluster performance. Mande told him as much and the werewolf threw him against the wall and attacked him. He begged passersby to help.
“No one would help me. And it took me so long before I realized, of course no one’s helping me, because they’re turning the corner and they’re like “Damn they’re stepping it up this year. That was like a real werewolf attack,” Mande says in the special.
Mande did not report the incident.
“I got beat up in a haunted house and ran out and then went on with my night. I probably got cookies and put ice on my ribs,” Mande says. “I did not file charges. I was just happy to get out of this.”
Even so, he still thinks of Minnesota fondly.
“I give a lot of credit to Minnesota, St. Paul, the St. Paul Central High School [for] fostering the arts and letting a nervous, opinionated Jewish boy find his voice. I don’t know if that would have been the case in every other part of the Midwest,” Mande says.
