Back in February, three weeks into President Donald Trump’s second term, we dispatched news reporter Kevin McCallum to the Midwest to cover U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and his then-fledgling “Fight Oligarchy” tour. It was a last-minute decision — with expensive flights — that thoroughly upended editorial plans for the forthcoming issue. But I’m glad Seven Days documented the first sign of an organized opposition movement because, well, it’s Bernie. Our independent media company is strictly focused on local news, but every so often there’s a good reason to chase a national story with Green Mountain roots.
Seven Days culture writers go the distance, too, when it appears some border-busting Vermont artist is about to make it big. One year ago, Mary Ann Lickteig traveled to New York City to report on the opening of the musical Suffs, the creation of Waitsfield-born theater artist Shaina Taub, who wrote, directed and starred in the show.
No other local media outlet invests as much time, space and talent to keep readers informed about Vermont arts and culture.
Before that, we wrote about the transformation of Bolton cartoonist Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir into the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Fun Home; similarly, we followed Anaïs Mitchell’s Hadestown from a small-cast show at Barre’s Old Labor Hall all the way to the Walter Kerr Theatre in Midtown Manhattan.
For 30 years, Seven Days has kept a watchful eye — and discriminating ear — on Vermont arts and culture. No other local media outlet invests as much time, space and talent to keep readers informed about the live performances, gallery shows, restaurants and other creative endeavors that enliven and distinguish the place we call home.
For this week’s story, we hit the road to catch up with Middlebury-born comedian Tina Friml. Culture coeditor Dan Bolles first heard her name in 2016, about a year after Vermont Comedy Club opened. In July 2017, she was one of eight interviewed in a Seven Days cover story titled “Laughing Matters: Vermont’s Female Comedians Are No Joke.” Earlier this month, Dan drove to New York City to shadow Friml surrounding her second appearance on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”
After Friml taped her bit at NBC, Dan joined her at a watch party where “the 30 or so people bunched together on couches and barstools that night numbered some of the most important in her life — family and friends from Vermont; pals and comedian colleagues from New York City; a new boyfriend,” he writes in “Tina Friml Can’t Lose.” “They know better than most the challenges Friml, who has cerebral palsy, has endured to chase her dream.”
Acknowledging her disability — and finding humor in society’s perceptions of it — is part of Friml’s act. Offstage, she talked openly with Dan about how being different has opened doors and made her unique.
“Nothing was off-limits,” Dan told me. When he apologized to Friml in advance for any insensitivity in his line of questioning, she responded, “Don’t worry about that at all. I’ve heard everything.”
As Dan observed, onstage Friml wields total control of the conversation about her disability. By allowing a reporter an unfiltered glimpse into her life offstage, she relinquished some of that control and trusted him to tell her story honestly. “I got a vivid picture of how she navigates the world,” Dan said, “which gave me a deeper appreciation for just how clever her jokes really are.”
Dan spent four days in the city — walking as many as 20,000 steps a day — to get a closer look at Friml’s life, including an awkward live gig before an audience of seven tourists, “three of whom were from Singapore.” The truth is, aspiring comedians bomb a lot more often than they kill. Dan hung around long enough to show that.
The result is a fun, insightful profile — a break from the heavier news of education funding and immigration raids. At Seven Days, we’re on the lookout, near and far, for all of it.
This article appears in Apr 30 – May 6, 2025.
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