We’re excited to announce an event new to Kruise Fest, to be featured on night one (October 27) at the Hilton DoubleTree San Pedro. Joining our Bon Voyage party will be the “Punchlines and Backlines: Music and Comedy Unite” Kruise Fest Komedy show, hosted by Creator and Producer (and KISS Kruise alum) Courtney Cronin Dold and featuring Hal Sparks and headliner Craig Gass. A surprise rock star guest will be joining for their very first comedy set!
Meet the
"Punchlines & Backlines" Comedians
Craig Gass
“When you’re born you get a ticket to the freak show. When you’re born in America, you get a front row seat”. – George Carlin
Craig Gass’ eclectic resume is scripted from two decades of working rooms, following leads, embarrassing and endearing strangers while building a modest and devoted fan base. Craig didn’t pursue a particular career path, the career happened to Craig; in no small way thanks to his uncanny ability to capture the voice and idiosyncrasies of the celebrities he impersonates.
Craig began doing standup in 1993… eventually making frequent, freaky appearances on The Howard Stern Show, blowing listener minds with his uncanny impressions of notorious celebrities like Christopher Walken, Gene Simmons, Gilbert Gottfried, Tracy Morgan, Sam Kinison, Al Pacino and Lars Ulrich. This platform led to Hollywood, including roles on Sex and The City, Family Guy, and King of Queens.
Craig owes this phenomenal gift to the force majeure of his birth and childhood environment. “Neither of my parents could hear, so I couldn’t learn how to talk by listening to them,” he recalls. “I learned words and sentences and sounds by copying the voices I heard on television.” Raised in a household of silence and gesticulation, Craig’s childhood was profoundly marked by his media consumption of 70’s and 80’s Zeitgeist.
Craig Gass will make you laugh, weep, choke, recoil and most importantly, recognize that the faults, flaws and freaky behavior that we all possess, do not define us but rather, unite us. “We all have way more in common than we do that divides us.” (Don’t we KISS fans know it?)
Hal Sparks
“Give a man a mask and he will tell you the truth.”
— Oscar Wilde... or maybe it was Paul Stanley
Hal Sparks has hosted the Emmy award-winning Talk Soup, starred in the critically-acclaimed Showtime drama Queer As Folk, the movie Spiderman2, the “Citizen Kane” of Stoner films, Dude, Where's My Car? and as Donald Davenport in the runaway Disney Channel hit, Lab Rats. His theater credits include Equus and True West. Hal is an accomplished, musician and singer, magician, director and writer and comedian with a comedy special called, Charmageddon.
Hal is also a die-hard KISS fan and is featured frequently on music and comedy podcasts. He is the lead singer for the bands ZERO 1 and the #1 comedic Van Halen tribute band, NERD HALEN where Hal tackles both Roth and Hagar’s vocals. Hal also speaks fluent Mandarin and French.
Courtney Cronin Dold
Courtney Cronin Dold is a comedy writer, television producer, and stand-up comic. She has been seen on the E! countdown shows Forbes Celebrity 100 and Celebrity Weddings, HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, Showtime’s Gigolos, as well as the TBS hit show Separation Anxiety.
She has written for a long list of comedians, celebrities, and musicians and over 45 TV series and pilots. Including, The Real Screen Awards, Socially Offensive Behavior hosted by D.L. Hughley, Revenge of The Boys with Ken Jeong, MTV’S Disaster Date, TBS’S Who Gets the Last Laugh with Donald Faison, MohrSports with Jay Mohr, The Chelsea Handler Show, Sports Soup with Matt Iseman, televised roasts of Dee Snider and Corey Taylor, and The Wayne Brady Show, where she was nominated for a Daytime Emmy.
Courtney is also the creator and producer of “Punchlines and Backlines”. They have been mentioned in Blabbermouth magazine and on Trunk Nation. The show has been performed at Count’s Vamp’d in Vegas, The Monsters of Rock Cruise, Nashville’s RockNPod, Creatures Fest, and now at Kruise Fest! She is also a frequent guest and co-host on KISS and rock music related podcasts.