Every once in a while Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati presents a singular performer who has a past with our city’s premiere theater. Back in 2014 Dale Dymkoski played Billy, the central role in ETC’s production of Tribes, a play by Nina Raine about a deaf young man navigating a family that failed to adapt to his needs until he found a new community. In my CityBeat review I called the production “a master class in family dynamics” and praised Dymkoski for portraying his character “with sensitivity, subtlety and surprising eloquence.”
More than a decade later Dymkoski has established himself as a writer and a comedy performer, and he’ll return to ETC on Feb. 28 to present Feminist Ass Man, his comedic monologue that was roundly praised during the 2025 Hollywood Fringe Festival. In a recent email, he told me, “My comedy is a blend of tight jokes about being a hard-of-hearing person, overcoming a stroke, relationships, travel in Brazil and socio-political comedy.” He’s performed at numerous clubs in Los Angeles, as well as comedy festivals nationwide.
Dymkoski claims to be “the world’s deafest, fittest stroke survivor.” But he hates labels, and his solo act is effort to tell everyone why. He’s appeared at many of L.A.’s legendary clubs including the Comedy Store, Laugh Factory, Improv, and Ice House, and he’s opened and featured for Jeremy Piven, among others. His TV credits include Law & Order: SVU and Scandal.
A review of his Hollywood Fringe show called him a brilliant comedian and added, “He uses his truth to make us laugh and also tell his fascinating story. Just like the very best comedians, he has a very specific perspective on the world. A unique position, his own unique place in the universe from which to see how everything works and doesn’t work.”
The reviewer wrote, “He’s a man for all seasons. A renaissance man. A funny, poignant writer and performer with a lot to say and a lovely, gentle, pushy way to say it. He is also a musician, and for his show finale, he gets out his guitar and sings … which was absolutely gorgeous!”
He’ll be at ETC (1127 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine) on Saturday, Feb. 28, at 7:30 p.m. Here’s a link for tickets. Or you can call ETC’s box office at 513-421-3555. (Dymkoski will also perform for a Pro-Am Night at Go Bananas Comedy Club in Montgomery Wednesday, Feb. 25, 7:30 p.m.)