Maybe you’ve had a year that was so bad you need to laugh just to keep from crying. Or maybe you had such a good year that you’re laughing all the way to the bank. Either way, the Admiral Theatre has a New Year’s Eve show for you.

The Admiral hosts its first-ever New Year’s Eve Comedy Spectacular, featuring the best of the Comedy Underground, Seattle’s longest-running comedy club.

Headlining the show is Portland comedian Dwight Slade, with special guests Jennifer Grant and Harrold Gomez.

Slade was born in Seattle the year the Space Needle was built, but moved around the country with his family during his formative years, which may explain his early penchant for comedy.

At 13 he formed a comedy duo with a fellow funny teen, and by 16 they were performing at Houston’s Comedy Workshop. The partnership ended when Slade’s family moved to Oregon, but Slade continued to yuk his way through high school and college at Portland Stage University.

Slade became a popular performer on the Northwest comedy circuit, and in the 1980s opened for Jay Leno and Jerry Seinfeld. He spent four years touring the United States in an RV with his wife and young child before settling again in Portland for the birth of child number two.

He began his feature film career with an appearance in 2000 in “Inconceivable,” a light-hearted comedy about a couple’s inability to conceive. He then co-starred in the indie film, “My Way Home,” in a dramatic role as an alcoholic, abusive father.

About that time, he also became the 2001 winner of the Seattle International Comedy Competition, a grueling contest that could be called the Olympics of comedy.

The year 2002 was a red hot one for Slade, with appearances at comedy festivals in Aspen, Chicago and Montreal, Canada. He also signed a development deal with Warner Brothers Television for a sitcom and was chosen to appear on HBO’s “Best of the US Comedy Arts Festival.”

They love his brand of acerbic humor in Europe. He was awarded a five star review from Scotland’s Minister of Culture at the 2003 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and followed with shows in London, Paris and Milan.

In 2003, he also shared the stage with rock icons Jeff Beck and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

In 2004, he played to a different crowd: wounded soldiers at the Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

He appeared again at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this year, prompting a reviewer in the Times of London to write: “Dwight Slade knows how to introduce himself to a British crowd. ‘I’m from the US,’ he says, pushing back his shoulder-length hair, ‘and I’m sorry.’ But really, of all the comics plying their trade this month, Slade has nothing to apologise for. Playing as part of the Tron’s Laughter Masters Series . . . Slade makes his rivals look like boys doing a man’s job.”

Following the comedy show, a DJ will take over to ring in the New Year to dancing on the Admiral Theatre stage.

The New Year’s Eve Comedy Spectacular begins at 9 p.m. Dec. 31 at the Admiral Theatre, 515 Pacific Ave., Bremerton. Tickets are $35, available at the box office or by phone at (360) 373-6743. wu