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Hello, Des Moines. It’s Susan Stapleton, entertainment editor and dining reporter at The Des Moines Register. This week, I talked to AJ Simmons, the co-owner of Teehee’s Comedy Club, about his comedy extravaganza, “No Sleep,” where six Iowa comedians vie for bragging rights by telling their best jokes in short stand-up gigs at the Val Air Ballroom in West Des Moines.
AJ has two funny things about his life to share. “The only year my family got a real Christmas tree it caught on fire and burnt our house up. Luckily, the firefighters saved my hamster, but we had to spend the next few weeks living in a hotel where we had no tree, made stockings out of pillow cases, and played video games. Sounds sad, but to this day it’s one of my favorite and most memorable holidays ever.”