{"id":165645,"date":"2026-04-14T18:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T18:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/165645\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T18:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T18:28:08","slug":"almost-everybody-must-get-stoned-at-alex-grubards-long-running-comedy-game-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/165645\/","title":{"rendered":"(Almost) Everybody Must Get Stoned at Alex Grubard’s Long-Running Comedy Game Show"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tQ&A<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Weeding Out the Stoned celebrates the 4\/20 holiday season this week.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tGet our weekly picks of what to do this weekend and the latest on Philly’s arts and entertainment scene.\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

Chanel Ali takes the mic at a previous edition of Weeding out the Stoned, hosted by Alex Grubard (right). \/ Photograph courtesy of Alex Grubard<\/p>\n

When Alex Grubard steps onto the stage to host another edition of Weeding out the Stoned, he knows he\u2019s going to be herding cats all night. Founded on small Philly comedy stages 11 years ago, the show requires the audience to determine which of the eight comedians on his panel are high at and that moment, and which one is stone-cold sober. Along the way, Grubard administers several \u201csobriety tests\u201d of dubious scientific rigor that have contestants riffing, blowing up balloons, reciting the alphabet backwards, etc.<\/p>\n

Still, it\u2019s not as easy as it sounds. \u201cI try and tell the audience before the show \u2014 they\u2019re all comedians. They\u2019re all gonna say things that are silly. Don\u2019t eliminate silly. Eliminate stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grubard, who was a Temple student when he created the show in 2015, now lives in Jersey City, but frequently takes the show on the road. The current tour in celebration of the 4\/20 holiday includes stops in Boston, New York, and Philly\u2019s Sidequest Theater on April 18th. Part of the appeal of Weeding out the Stoned, Grubard says, is the result of changing attitudes about pot. \u201cPeople like that little rebellion.\u201d<\/p>\n

You probably couldn\u2019t have done this show 25 years ago.
Weed was just decriminalized in Philly<\/a> right when we started. Honestly, the timing couldn\u2019t have been better in regards to that. Now you read [about] people going to shows and not drinking; they\u2019re getting high beforehand. I think it just kind of taps into what\u2019s been trending \u2014 a trend that\u2019s now happened that\u2019s dispensary based, and edibles, and dog walker joints, and things like that, new little things that you never would have really done that much. I mean, when I started eating edibles, they were cookies, they were brownies.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s it like trying to maintain order during Weeding Out the Stoned?
With comics, there\u2019s a way to lead them places. It\u2019s like an organic, \u201cunscripted television kind of thing.\u201d They\u2019re performers. They know what to do. And if people get off track, I\u2019m always there to bring them back to the game show.<\/p>\n

Sometimes you let them ramble.
It\u2019s like letting somebody dig their own grave a little bit. We\u2019re eliminating the people that are being high, so if you\u2019re going off on rant after rant and being such a big personality, people are going to be like, \u201cThat guy is high.\u201d I love when people do stuff like that, but you can tell. They\u2019re not fooling anybody.<\/p>\n

You can tell some people are impaired, regardless of all the sobriety tests.
It\u2019s so fun when somebody on stage gets the giggles, or even in the audience. I mean, it\u2019s an interactive show.<\/p>\n

When you go to a different city, you have to try to recruit comedians from that area?
Every area has a local comedy scene, and people coming in from out of town for other shows. You get this lineup of eight people that maybe would have never been in the same green room at the same time. It\u2019s great going to local comedy scenes and being like, \u201cHey, wanna do something other than a stand-up showcase?\u201d It\u2019s a little more of a community thing.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve had some comics like Todd Glass, Jordan Jensen, and Danny Tamberelli on the show. Do you have a wish list, like Doug Benson perhaps?
Definitely, Doug Benson. I\u2019m a big Tommy Chong guy. Those are some big names as far as weed guys go. Noah Gardenswartz is a super funny comic; I don\u2019t think he\u2019s ever done the show. Sometimes I get surprised, some comics that I love, I\u2019ll be like, \u201cOh, you should be on Weeding.\u201d And they\u2019re like, \u201cI did it in 2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weeding out the Stoned<\/a>, April 18th, 7 p.m., $16.79, SideQuest Theater, 2030 Sansom Street.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Q&A Weeding Out the Stoned celebrates the 4\/20 holiday season this week. Get our weekly picks of what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":{"0":"post-165645","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-philadelphia","9":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","10":"tag-philadelphia-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}