John Oliver in Boston – December 28, 2025

Every year HBO’s Last Week Tonight goes on hiatus for a couple of months surrounding the holidays. Host John Oliver doesn’t stop working, however, and immediately hits the road to perform stand-up. Oliver came to Boston for a two night stint at the MGM Music Hall. The sold out crowd on this Sunday night felt like they were in the right place, as Last Week Tonight is a Sunday night staple. 

His opener, Brooks Wheelan, got the crowd warmed up as he talked about a wide variety of topics, from Israel, to whales jumping out of the water, to hating his parents – and that all made sense. As he wrapped up his set, and the audience prepared for Oliver to make his entrance, we were treated to a surprise 10 minutes set from Eugene Mirman. A comedian with ties to Boston, Eugene may be best known to casual audiences as the voice of Gene Belcher on Bob’s Burgers. 

After Eugene finished his quick set, Oliver entered the stage to the thunderous applause. The overarching theme of his set tonight regarded Americans not learning from mistakes in history. A British man teaching Boston about the history of the British royal family, inside a venue built in the back of Fenway Park – John said the only thing that could make this a more quintessential Boston experience would be if he was drinking a Sam Adams.

Some of the things we learned about were the THREE(!!!) times the United States accidentally dropped a nuclear bomb on itself, and about John’s own dreams of being an athlete as a child. As he admitted his own failure, he let us kow that we’ve all failed at achieving our dreams. After what many have considered to be a really hard year, John’s night of laughs was a great way to end the year, with hopes of bringing in a better 2026.