TORRINGTON – A comedy show is coming to town on Saturday, Jan. 22, to raise money for WYO Help. 

Darren Bulow and Don Haines have been putting on shows for non-profits for three years and will be stopping in Torrington for WYO LAFFS presented by WYO Help at the Eastern Wyoming College auditorium. 

Bulow, who tells jokes about hunting and fishing, said he got into comedy 11 years ago when he made a list of the things he wanted to do. 

“I wrote down like 10 different ideas and one of them said “comedian” and the very first thing my wife said was you’re not going to do that. Cross that off the list,” Bulow said. “And if somebody tells me I can’t do something, I’m going to do it.”  

Through his first six years of performing Bulow did about five to six shows per year, his wife told him he needed to start getting serious about it or stop doing it all together. 

After meeting Haines, the two decided to perform for nonprofits. The only problem was trying to get someone to believe them first. 

“I literally had to get the first show with 250 calls, emails and businesses because nobody believed us and then me and [Haines] we got one, and then we got two, and then the ball started rolling and we haven’t stopped since,” Bulow said. 

In terms of material, Bulow has 50 years of experience hunting and fishing which has equaled about 300 pages worth of jokes giving him plenty of stories to work with. The unpredictability of the outdoors is what gives Bulow such interesting stories which he can turn into jokes. 

“When you’re out in the wild all kinds of things can happen that you have don’t have control over. The weather, the wind, animals,” Bulow said. “Because of that I took and combined all the stories and I tuned it to where now I basically have an hour show.” 

Although there is some exaggeration in his stories, Bulow said they are all true and people often come up to him after the show to tell him they have had similar experiences. 

“A lot of it is relationship things with my wife. There’s one about my fiancé and people always come up to me and they say the reason why they like it is it’s relatable to them,” Bulow said.  

For Haines, also know as Poor Don, his comedy is centered around the hardships of his life, such as getting cancer on his 40th birthday or being stood up at the prom. Despite the different approaches to getting people to laugh, Bulow said they are equally funny with many audience members making the mistake of taking a sip of their beverage before Haines’ punchline. 

Along with the different style of comedy, the two also prepare for shows in different ways. Bulow has regular set he does for his shows which last between 55 minutes to an hour, while Haines writes a new set for each show. The two changeup who goes first each show and don’t normally decide until the day of. 

“We just take off and you just build on it and it’s one of those things where it’s no big deal to me to share the spotlight because Don is just as funny as I am,” Bulow said. 

Along with the show, there will also be a silent auction for people to bid on a variety of items with the proceeds going to WYO Help and all of its projects from the youth alternatives program to the food pantry. WYO Help Executive Director Kyle Borger said he received an email from Bulow about their show and felt it would be a great family friendly experience for the community in addition to raising money. 

“I’ve been looking for those opportunities where we could possibly raise funds but offer families a night out,” Borger said. “And because they do family friendly comedy, if somebody wants to bring their kids, we’re going to be mostly okay and they don’t have to worry about off color jokes, or sex jokes and all that sort of stuff.” 

Borger also said fundraisers often require people to dress up and have to find babysitters, but this event will allow people to bring their whole family. 

For Bulow, having the opportunity to raise money for nonprofits is his favorite part of doing the shows. 

“I love to make people laugh but the biggest thing that I got out of doing this work for nonprofits, churches and church organizations is the fact that we’re helping people,” Bulow said. “The money that we raise help people we help kids with cancer, we helped American Cancer Society, we’ve helped all these different organizations to raise money where you know that that money is going to a good cause.” 

Tickets for the show can be purchased at Pinnacle Bank for $20. For more information, go to the WYO Help Facebook page or website at https://www.wyohelp.com/.