Major Laughs for Minority Communities

Funny-maker Hannah Goldman and I had a seasonal variety show that glorifies femme and queer comedy talent at the Peoples Improv Theater (PIT). It was called The Straight Man because we were being ironic or something. For two years, we lubed up and wrestled down old ass comedy traditions in genre-busting and gender-bending nights of making fun.

What’s Your Talent?

It was a variety show, so anything goes. People threw their wildest ideas at us and saw if they stuck, a great way to try something new in front of full audiences and connect with comics across genres. As I’m a public relations representative by day, our events were seriously promoted, well attended and professionally documented.

Straight Man History

Co-producer Hannah Goldman and I originally bonded as the seemingly only queer students at a Magnet Theater sketch writing class. I had just ditched the modern dance world and Goldman was a comedic actor looking to create opportunities. Surprised how old fashioned the NYC comedy scene still was, we created a fresh community where marginalized comedians are not only accepted, but celebrated. After successfully co-producing Gay Stuff at the PIT in 2018, we were offered a seasonal show.

Since then, we’ve presented 50+ stand up, sketch, dance, and cabaret acts and been featured in AM New York, Metrosource, BK Reader, The Flatiron, Diversity Rules, Broadway World, GO Magazine and more.

Straight Man Talent

Photos by Cicily Andrea and Aliyah Chakim

Aby James, seen on HBO's Crashing and the Friars Club Roast of Gloria Allred, offers a fresh take on chap-stick lesbianism.

Alexis Powell invokes characters that take petty lows to new heights.

Brendan Leonard is a comedian, librarian at Lincoln Center, and script reader for the Public Theater.

Christine Driscoll, an environmental policy fugitive, presents performative character driven rants.

Musician Dylan Adler hosts Artistè at Club Cumming and parodies popular songs with a queer perspective.

Improv trio The Gin Girls are as aggressive about laughter as they are about female friendship.

Jake Goldstein is an actor, stand up comedian, and officially a drama queen, according to NYU Tisch.

Jennifer Beck writes and performs trash characters, sometimes literally.

Stand up Jessica Henderson makes funny while throwing beauty standards out the window.

Stand up comedian Keira McGill is the 2019 winner of Broadway Comedy Club’s Yaaas Fest, and make anxiety fun.

Non-binary Latinx gender goblin, Oliver de Luz, through stand up comedy, aims to challenge cis people, lure straight men into queerness, and help the rest of us feel less alone.

Marrianne Beltle tells jokes about being sad, brown, queer and cancer-ridden.

Selected for the NY Comedy Festival, Matt Smith McCormick performs as Pammy, a chain-smoking school bus driver who’s mind is big in a small-town.

Stand up Meghan Frank talks about being too gay for Wisconsin.

Magda Cychowski is a writer/performer who enjoys using her privilege to help others and mock buffoons.

Michael J Bevan is a comedian who’s been featured on Funny or Die. He also has project on pink eye you may enjoy.

Michelle Davis is a writer/performer who deep-dives into divas as the co-host of Pass the Aux at Union Hall.

Microdose have presented at UCB and the PIT and offer a wildly inclusive quality to improv comedy.

Peter Valenti performs in pub dungeons all over NYC, and is the co-founder of LGBTQIA open mic Open Flame at Mood Ring every other Monday.

Rebecca Hidalgo is an experimental, multi-genre artist who explores heritage through everything from dance, circus, theater, and music.

Sketch aficionado Pratima Mani is marketably diverse and loves a good joke about international policy.

Sammie James is a dry, self-deprecating, and disabled stand comedian and host of the We Are Trans showcase.

Samuel Morrison, one of Mogul Magazine's “Comics to Watch” and 1st place winner of Make Me Laugh, brings an irreverent spin to quote-unquote woke issues.

Stand up Tanisha Barnes explores her experience as a quirky black woman in America.

Stand up Veronica Garza is featured on MTV Decoded.

Walter Kelly is a comedian whose writing has appeared on Bustle, Upworthy, TIME, and Vice.

Yoshiko Watson is a New York stand up comedian that has performed for Left Breast, Stand Up NY, and Comedy Fight.