If you’re in the board game community and plugged in to things like Gen Con and a few different YouTube channels, you might know about Grant Lyon. But if not, this is going to be new to you. And it’s kind of new to me as well. I have seen Grant Lyon perform a bit of his stand-up before. But just over a week ago he was at the GameZenter in Roseville Minnesota near where I live, and I got to see him live.

Who Is Grant Lyon?

First off let’s talk a little bit about him, but only a little bit. If you want to find out more about him, you can checkout his website here. But like I said he’s a board game comedian. What does that mean? It means that Grant Lyon does comedy, stand-up in particular. And that is going to be about board games.

He is on a tour now, though over half way done, with a stand-up show. So if you want to see him perform, he might still be coming to a town near you. And I’d checkout the website above to find out if that is the case.

How Was The Show?

But let’s talk about his performance and we are going to split it into three parts here. The first being the venue. The next being his stand-up. And finally some games.

The Venue

When it comes to the venue, I think that the GameZenter was okay. And I’ll give the big reason why here in a second. While being able to sit and see Grant Lyon perform was good, the PA system was not as good. Now, it might have just been a one off issue, but when hosting an event like this, you should test it better. And for what it was, the sound wasn’t good, Grant paused his performance and got his own system. After that it was great.

Grant Lyon’s Stand-up

Grant Lyon’s stand-up was a lot of fun. Though, as you’d expect, it is all about board games. Yes, there are some personal stories thrown in there, but it is about board games. So in terms of the audience, having it at a game store is a great spot to have it. And for me, it was a lot of laughs. There were a lot of good jokes in there that you will get if you know board games.

But when I talk about his comedy, it is all board game comedy. He was a comedian before becoming the big name in board game comedy, which isn’t that huge a name. But Grant Lyon is going to focus on the topic of board games. He talked about about he does shows at comedy clubs and he has them guess what they think a lot of board games is. And just how small that number is compared what he actually has. And yes, I think he has more than me.

I say that not as a knock on his comedy. I think his comedy is very good. And it is clearly written and focused for the audience that is there. In this case, that audience is board gamers, and it lands really well. It is also clean which is nice. I don’t think he swore in it. But there aren’t risqué jokes or things like that to worry about.

Gaming With Grant Lyon

Finally is the gaming. I wasn’t sure what this was going to be, but it was two big party games. The first being Green Team Wins. And this one works well. I don’t think it worked perfectly, but I do think there are ways that it could have been tweaked slightly. The idea of this one is to be on the green team. If you go from the orange to the green team you get a point. If you stay on the green team you get two points. And all you need to do to get that is just be in the majority.

This one, like I said, is an okay one. Mainly because of one of the three types of questions. I think of Grant Lyon had removed that one it would have flowed better. But the questions are either/or, multiple choice, or fill in the blank. That last one doesn’t work so well in a room with 150+ people. The other two are great though, and even with a few fill in the blank ones, it was easy to play.

The other one was Blob Party, this is one where you are trying to match with people. You become a blob, and the goal is to get everyone into a blob before seven turns are up. This one works well, as well. There is the downside that again with 150+ people, you get into a huge blob and picking a word is kind of guess work. But that is okay because the game is fast and simple.

Final Thoughts on the Grant Lyon Show

I recommend it. I think that Grant Lyon is a fun comedian. That is, of course, with the caveat for this show you need to know board games a little bit. There are elements that will translate over just fine in comedy. But if you know board games, a whole lot more of them are going to translate over.

I’m not sure he always does the gaming with him. I think that’s more for the shows that he’s done at game stores. But if you can get to one of those, it’s going to be a fun time as well. Also just reminded myself I need to add Blob Party to the list of games that I’ve played and rated.

Let me know what you think of his comedy if you’ve gone to a Grant Lyon show.

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