Who’s the funniest person in St. Paul?

That title will be awarded at a 7 p.m. show Tuesday, Sept. 3, at Gambit Brewing in Lowertown, the conclusion of a contest that’s been taking place all summer at the brewery’s weekly comedy open mic. The winner will be determined by an audience vote.

Every Tuesday night for the past 10 weeks, 10 standup comedians have brought their best jokes to the open mic, and audiences scored each set on a scale of 1 to 5. The performer with the highest average ranking each night — or two performers, in the case of one tied week — earned a spot in the finals.

The contest is organized by St. Paul-based standup comedian Jesse the Shrink (real name: Jesse Ellis), who founded and hosts the weekly open mic at Gambit. His stage name is apt; he works professionally as a therapist — a fact that influences his approach to comedy, he said.

“It’s been cool to see some of these comics (in the competition) feel welcomed here and encouraged, and then get better and better,” he said on a recent afternoon during a break between clients. “It’s taking my natural inclination as a therapist, really wanting to bring humanity into all this.”

In addition to the 11 finalists, the Tuesday night show will feature a pair of headliners: a musical comedian who goes by the name Lefty Crumpet, and Rudy Pavich, who’s opened for the likes of Adam Carolla and Kyle Dunnigan and who is set to record his first stand-up album at a show in a few weeks in Minneapolis. Pavich plans to give away some tickets for the recording to audience members at the Gambit finals.

As for the winner of the contest, they’ll be crowned the Funniest Person in St. Paul, of course, and also earn a paid appearance onstage at the inaugural Friday Night Comedy show on Sept. 6 at Gambit. That show’s lineup is all St. Paul, Ellis said: Headliner Jeff Pfoser, featured comedian Ali Horman, and Ellis as host all live here.

So what makes a person funny in St. Paul? With a slightly less established stand-up comedy scene here than across the river, Ellis said, perhaps it feels more accessible for someone to get up on stage and try telling some jokes.

“When I started this mic, there were a lot of comedians in the scene over in Minneapolis that weren’t coming — and that’s where I started to see some new people emerge that I’d never seen before,” Ellis said. “It fits into that idea of creating our own style of open mic over here in St. Paul, that allows people to come out and thrive.”

The weekly stand-up open mic at Gambit Brewing (141 E. 4th St., Suite LL2), which also features two pre-booked professional headliners, begins at 7 p.m. every Tuesday. You can sign up to perform at Linktr.ee/GambitBrewingOpenMic.

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The Minnesota State Fair Grandstand season drew to a close Monday afternoon with a spirited performance from Kidz Bop.

What, you might ask, is Kidz Bop? It’s an ingenious concept launched by the indie record label Razor and Tie in 2001 that takes pop hits, edits out any objectionable lyrics and has kidz — sorry, kids — sing the songs. It started out as a series of CDs that sold remarkably well and, in 2007, the live touring version launched at Target Center in Minneapolis. (More on that in a bit.)

Even as streaming replaced CDs and music got much more diverse, Kidz Bop has soldiered on with 21 million albums sold and more than 4.5 billion songs streamed. I don’t have kids, but I understand the appeal to parents who may grow tired of some of the more inane original music targeted toward the youth market. Some 4,545 people showed up Monday.

I happened to see that first show in 2007 and Monday’s performance looked and sounded a bit different. The live band of adults has been replaced by a DJ and the number of kids on stage reduced from six to four. And the song selection has grown to include hip-hop (Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby,” Paul Russell’s “Lil Boo Thing”), Latin pop (Black Eyed Peas and J Balvin’s “Ritmo,” Eslabon Armado and Peso Pluma’s “Ella Baila Sola”) and even reggaeton (Jawsh 685 and Jason Derulo’s “Savage Love”).

Also, back in 2007, the kids felt a lot more like actual kids who sometimes sang off key and messed up dance steps. The four kids on stage Monday were much more polished, which maybe isn’t too much of a surprise as the franchise has helped launch the career of some professional singers and actors, including Becky G (who coincidentally opened this year’s Grandstand series), Kiana Brown, Olivia Holt, Ross Lynch and Zendaya.

For an hour and 45 minutes, with a 20-minute intermission during which Kidz Bop covers blasted over the loudspeakers, a barrage of current and recent songs played nearly nonstop, many in shortened versions. Part of the fun for adults was listening to the lyrics to figure out how the producers sanitized numbers like Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero,” Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire” and Lizzo’s “About Damn Time.”

The kids in the audience probably did more dancing than singing along, but many looked to be having a blast, particularly those who took advantage of the empty space at the top of the Grandstand to spread out and sway along to the tunes. And, really, some of the selections made perfect sense for children’s voices, including Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers,” Harry Styles’ “As It Was” and Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling!”

At one point the Kidz Bop Kids invited four dads (in hats and/or sunglasses) for a Daddy Dance-Off that saw them do the worm, moonwalk and robot, among other moves. The guy who pulled off some rudimentary breakdancing won the audience’s vote along with a pair of Kidz Bop pompoms. It was also cute when the foursome taught the crowd the dance for Beyonce’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” and then encouraged them to dance to the song itself.

The concert ended with the audience’s pick of their favorite song, Walk the Moon’s 2014 hit “Shut Up and Dance.” I’m guessing it’ll be a while until some of the kids in the crowd shut up about how much fun they had.

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ST. PETERSBURG — The Twins’ bullpen has been reshaped in recent weeks, as they look to find the best group of arms to push them towards the playoffs.

But for much of the year, Jorge Alcala, Cole Sands, Griffin Jax and Jhoan Duran have formed the core of the bullpen, serving as reliable pieces near the end of games.

That group, plus Ronny Henriquez, helped the Twins capture their second straight win, this one a 5-4 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday night at Tropicana Field, after it was pressed into duty early.

Starter Simeon Woods Richardson’s night ended early — after just 3 2/3 innings — at which point Alcala entered to extract him from a jam with a runner in scoring position.

Woods Richardson gave up three runs in his short start on six hits, allowing the Rays to take the lead in the first inning after the Twins had jumped out to a lead of their own in the top half of the inning on a Royce Lewis RBI double.

Two innings later, Woods Richardson gave up another run, cutting into the Twins’ lead, which they retook in the second inning on Trevor Larnach’s line drive home run to right field, which came off the bat at 112.5 miles per hour.

While the Rays pulled back within a run, Larnach’s home run wound up giving the Twins a lead that the bullpen would successfully protect for the rest of the game.

Alcala (4-3) wound up throwing 1 1/3 innings, working around some trouble of his own in the fifth inning. Henriquez threw a clean sixth inning and Jax struck out two facing the heart of the order in the seventh inning.

Sands handled the eighth inning, giving up a home run to Jonny DeLuca, the only run the group gave up in its collective 5 1/3 innings pitched, before Duran nailed down his 21st save of the season.

The group got slightly more breathing room in the top of eighth inning when switch-hitting rookie Brooks Lee, back from the injured list a day earlier, hit the first right-handed home run of his career. It was the Twins’ first run since the second inning.

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Center field was the center of attention on Monday afternoon at CHS Field, with players representing the present and the future of the Twins joining the Saints.

Byron Buxton, on a rehab assignment from the Twins, manned the position against the Iowa Cubs, while 21-year-old Emmanuel Rodriguez made his Triple-A debut as the Saints’ designated hitter.

The 5-foot-11, 210-pound Rodriguez is rated the No. 3 prospect in the Twins organization (behind outfielder Walker Jenkins and infielder Brooks Lee) by MLB Pipeline. The Twins signed Rodriguez out of the Dominican Republic during the 2019-20 international signing period for $2.5 million.

Buxton, who has been sidelined since August 12 due to right hip inflammation, played seven innings in the Saints’ 11-8 loss. He went 1 for 3 at the plate with a walk.

The left-handed-hitting Rodriguez drove in a run in his first at-bat on a fielder’s choice. He also walked twice and struck out twice. Using teammate Diego Castillo as an interpreter, Rodriguez said he felt proud after making his Triple-A debut.

“I like being here; it’s a big step for me,” he said through Castillo. “I’m going to take advantage of playing with experienced players like Diego Castillo and I’m going to enjoy this time.”

Count Saints manager Toby Gardenhire among those eager to see what Rodriguez can do in Triple-A.

“It’s fun,” Gardenhire said. “He’s one of the big prospects. He’s had some injury stuff. Otherwise, he probably would have been up here earlier.”

Rodriguez sustained a right thumb sprain in May that sidelined him for three months. He appeared in 37 games for Double-A Wichita, hitting .298 with eight home runs. He does not consider the injury to be something that has stalled his development.

“I bet on myself; I know I can do this,” Rodriguez said. “I feel comfortable, and I know I’m going to do a good job.”

Asked if he set a goal of making it to Triple-A this season, Rodriguez said, “For sure, I was thinking about it when I was in Double-A.”

After getting word of the call-up, Rodriguez said he shared the news with his parents, wife and young son back in the Dominican.

Along with his power, Rodriguez is know for a good sense of the strike zone.

“That’s natural to me,” he said. “Since I was a kid I’ve been able to recognize balls and strikes. And I practiced a lot with my brother. With my experience in the minor leagues I’ve kept working on it.”

As for the remainder of the season, Rodriguez said his main focus the remainder of the season is to learn as much as he can. And he’ll always remember that he made his debut with Buxton as a teammate.

“It was great,” he said. “To be honest, I played a couple games with him in spring training. But if feels so good hitting behind him and watching him from the on-deck circle. It was really nice.”

Briefly

Iowa hit three home runs and scored seven runs in the third inning to take an 8-1 lead on Monday. The Saints scored two runs in each of the sixth and eighth innings, and added three more in the ninth before the rally fell short.

Left-handed pitcher Brent Headrick, who has been on the injured list since April 8 due to a left forearm strain, is back with the team and is expected to be activated within a few days. Headrick, who has been used as a starter and a reliever, likely will pitch out of the bullpen.

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