Faded Comedy Moves to the Skylark Lounge, First Show Is Tonight

While comedians Brent Gill and David Gborie grew up in Colorado in the early ’90s, they’ve also spent a fair amount of time in Los Angeles, where four years ago they started Faded, a regular show that included independent comics who have been featured on Netflix, Hulu, BET, HBO, Comedy Central and Showtime.

Then the pandemic happened, and Gborie moved back to Denver in late 2020. He rebooted Faded at the Black Buzzard with Gill, who still visits the city often from L.A. When the duo initially brought Faded to Denver early last year, they had hoped to host it at the Skylark, but it was closed at the time. Now that the venue has recently reopened with Nathaniel Rateliff as a co-owner, they’re moving the show there, and the first Skylark Faded event will take place at 8 p.m. on Friday, February 18.

“Once the Skylark opened up, we saw that opportunity there for the vibe and the experience we're trying to cultivate,” Gill says. “That part of town really lends a good hand to that.”

Gborie says in the dozen years that he’s been touring as a comic, he’s met fellow comics from both coasts who heard how great the audiences were here, and he wanted to provide a space where they could headline in Denver.

“Our thing is we're trying to get people right before we can't afford them anymore,” Gborie says. "We had Chris Estrada, who has a show coming out on Hulu. We won't be able to get him for what we got him for this year.”

Gborie says there are many cool up-and-coming comics that he's trying to bring to Faded.
“We feel like there's a lot of people in Denver who are our age who are looking to go to comedy, but don't necessarily want to go to, like, a rock-and-roll show afterward," he says. "So that's kind of the people that we're looking to get.”

Gill says they chose Fridays (Faded usually occurs the third Friday of the month) over Saturdays because they’d like people to go from work to a happy hour and head straight to the Skylark.

“We have our show and then we have an after-party at the Skylark,” Gill says. “We have drink specials and all that stuff. And really what we want is just this different type of experience. ... Our business is comedy, but it's also an experience like a party, as well, and a lot of fun, like, ‘I can't believe I just spent five hours with these people, but all I want to do is spend another five with them.’”

Gborie adds that at a Faded event, people might see a writer from Black-ish, then get drunk and dance to Ginuwine. The shows will usually feature one headliner and an opener, and Gborie and Gill will do sets, as well.

The shows will be on the second floor of the Skylark, where there’s a capacity of close to 100 people seated, which Gill says is the perfect number for what they’re doing.

“If we need to do two shows, we will, but that's a good number for kind of what we're looking at,” Gill says.

Faded, 8 p.m. Friday, February 18, Skylark Lounge, 140 South Broadway, $20.