Recently, a friend of mine who enjoys comedy went to an open mic where I was performing. Why he didn’t go to a real show, who knows?! He took me to dinner afterwards with a friend and towards the beginning of dinner his friend asked “did you tell her why we are here?” Woah, that was a little scary. Intervention? Were they going to blackmail me? Turns out they wanted to hire me as a consultant. Last year they did a roast, but thought the night could have been more successful. What they wanted was an evening using comedy to shed light on issues important to them. What wound up happening was closer to a regular stand up comedy show at a comedy club. Their vision was not the focal point to the evening of comedy.
They want to use my expertise in theater, improv, & stand-up comedy to translate their vision into something concrete. This is what I’m good at producing, creating something from nothing. Of course there are a few set backs, money being one of them and the subject matter is a very hot topic. Comedy comes from pain and so difficult topics such as Israel, the Holocaust, rape, cancer etc… can all be joked about as long as it’s funny and tasteful. If the joke is not funny then it will inevitably be offensive.
The key to taking this project on is to make sure the piece provides a message, has some pokes and jabs along the way, but ultimately is funny and poignant. I’m excited to work in this consultant and producer capacity.