August 21-25

Web site: www.comeddie.com

Eddie Gossling was born in Johnson City, New York, but you’d swear it was actually Austin, based on the response he gets here at Cap City--it’s like he’s a native, a local boy made good, a dignitary with the key to the city and an alt- celebrity, all rolled into one. But mostly what he is, and how we ultimately account for that response, comes down to this: Eddie is immensely funny, an incredibly talented guy who’s worked extremely hard, and now ever time he sets foot on the Cap City stage (or any other stage, for that matter), he’s a riveting, hilarious presence who brings the house down in riotous fashion. That’s a long way from the motley assortment of jobs--including horseradish inspector and junior accountant for a meat factory--that preceded his initial foray into stand-up, starting out in San Antonio. And even though Eddie is such a favorite son at Cap City--harking back to the years where he worked as the club’s house emcee--we can’t help think of him as our own, people everywhere have noticed what a stellar stand-up he’s become, and embraced him accordingly. Not just club audiences, but showbiz types in important places. For example, as far back as 1995, he won HBO’s “Stand-Up Standoff” Comic Relief VII competition, and in 1997 he took first places in the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival talent search. That was followed by acclaimed appearances at the Chicago Comedy Festival, and then came a pretty singular triumph on the festival circuit: Booked a few summers ago at the Just For Laughs International Comedy Festival in Montreal--widely considered the biggest, most prestigious comedy event in the world--he became the first act in the festival’s history to perform on both their “New Faces” show and on the high-profile the televised “Gala” show. More recently, he was invited to Just For Laughs to perform on a number of shows, and hosted a few shows at the festivals highest-profile venue, Club Soda.

With Roger Weaver