Don Lemon and D.L. Hughley are taking their unscripted, anything-can-happen stage show to Atlanta Symphony Hall this Friday, October 9, bringing comedy and hot-button politics to a city where Lemon first built his broadcasting career two decades ago. The two have extended their DL + DL “Anything Goes” tour with 15 new shows across North America due to popular demand, with the Atlanta stop among the newly added dates.
According to aso.org, the tour pairs “Emmy award-winning journalist Don Lemon and renowned comedian and radio host DL Hughley” for a show built around audience interaction and conversation rather than a scripted set. The Atlanta Symphony Hall event page describes the format as a “comedy-meets-politics live experience in select markets where no topic is off limits,” touching on social issues, race relations, pop culture and current events.
The show marks something of a homecoming for Lemon, who was hired by CNN in 2006 to work in the network's Atlanta newsroom. Per blackpast.org, he served as the network's weekend primetime anchor while also reporting on-the-scene during the week, a role that helped establish him as a national television presence before he later struck out on his own. The Atlanta Symphony Hall event listing now describes Lemon as leading his own independent media platform and hosting the widely streamed Don Lemon Show.
A Format Built on Stand-Up and Unscripted Talk
The touring show has followed a consistent blueprint in other cities. In Raleigh, the production was described by cbs17.com as mixing stand-up, audience interaction and discussion, while incorporating music, special guests and unscripted moments. The same elements appear baked into the broader concept behind the tour's current run.
A listing for an Atlanta-area City Winery engagement similarly framed the show around open-ended subject matter, with ticketing materials noting topics spanning everything from social issues, race, pop-culture and current events, per tickets.citywinery.com. That listing also noted a two-item-per-person food and beverage minimum in the concert venue for ticketholders attending in that setting.
Extended Run Reaches Dallas and Beyond
The tour's newly added dates stretch well past Atlanta. A Dallas-area listing placed the duo's appearance at a venue at 1001 Texas Trust Way in Grand Prairie, Texas, according to dallas.culturemap.com. Organizers have attributed the expansion directly to demand, announcing the 15 additional North American shows as a response to how the earlier dates performed.
The Atlanta engagement fits into that same pattern of a tour that keeps adding stops rather than winding down. For longtime Atlanta audiences, the pairing also offers a chance to see a familiar local figure return to a stage in the city where his on-air career first took shape, this time trading the anchor desk for a format where, as the show's billing puts it, no topic is declared off limits.
