Laughing Matters

Kate Clinton is one of America's brightest political comedians and was among the first to do stand-up comedy as an "out" lesbian. Her humor is plucked from the daily headlines and combines with her savvy send-ups of modern family relationships and illuminating perspectives on life as a gay American.

Clinton, born and raised in New York, celebrated her 20th anniversary as a performer in 2001. It was in March 1981, that this high school English teacher first took her act from the classroom to comedy clubs and theaters--and she never looked back.

She has appeared on Good Morning America, Nightline, Entertainment Tonight, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, The Roseanne Show, The Arsenio Hall Show, Leeza and numerous news and talk shows on Comedy Central, Lifetime, Oxygen, MSNBC, CNN, and C-Span. She hosted In The Life and The World According To Us.

Kate has six comedy albums to her credit including Babes in Joyland, Comedy You Can Dance To and her most recent, Read These Lips. Kate's first book, Don't Get Me Started, was published by Ballantine in 1998. Based on past and present monologues, it's filled with thoughts both insightful and riotous. The audio companion was named "One of 1998s Best Audiobooks" by Publishers Weekly.

Clinton writes monthly columns for The Progressive and The Advocate in which she waxes by turns comical and philosophical about the state of our nation and those who have put us in such a state. She has written pieces for the New York Times and George magazine among others. Kate served as a writer on The Rosie O'Donnell Show during its rollout period in 1996.

As an actress, humorist, panelist and host, Kate has performed at the 2001 V-Day celebration of "The Vagina Monologues" in a sold-out Madison Square Garden benefit to end violence against women. At Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism she joined Dick Cavett, President Clinton's speechwriter Mark Katz and Moderator Ted Koppel for the Alfred I. DuPont Forum Money, Humor & Spin in Election 2000 broadcast on PBS. In 1999, Correct Me If I'm Right premiered off-Broadway at the Westbeth Theatre Center. The New York Times called it a "terrific one-woman show." Throughout 1996, Kate's show, All Het Up, toured cities across the country. In 1993, Kate's Out Is In, debuted in Los Angeles to rave reviews and then moved to New York where it enjoyed a 3-month run off-Broadway.

Kate resides in Provincetown, Mass. In 2001 she was listed in the New York Magazine's "Gay Power 101."

Marga Gomez grew up in a showbiz family --her father was a Cuban comedian and emcee in New York, her mother a dancer. After her father's unfortunate discovery--Marga in bed with another girl--she moved to San Francisco.

Marga's stand-up career in San Francisco coincided with the comedy boom of the 1980s and the gay rights movement. She was a regular at the popular Valencia Rose Cabaret, a club that nurtured gay performers. She quickly joined forces with five other Latino comedians to create Culture Clash, a nationally acclaimed comedy troupe.

Her most recent work, "Marga Gomez's Intimate Details," premiered Off Broadway in February 2003 and was so successful she was called back for a two-week encore in June. She was recently invited to write and perform a new piece at the Kennedy Center (Spring 2004). In 1988 Marga was voted "Entertainer of the Year" by the San Francisco Council on Entertainment. She has appeared on HBO, Showtime and Comedy Central and performances in concert halls, colleges, and clubs all over the country.

Her comedy recording "Hung Like a Fly" is available on Uproar Records

Marga's solo shows include: "A Line Around The Block"; "Memory Tricks"; "Marga Gomez is Pretty, Witty & Gay"; "jaywalker" and "The Twelve Days of Cochina." She has been produced Off-Broadway at the Public Theatre, the Whitney Museum, Performance Space 122, and nationally at Sushi Performance Space, Boston Center for the Arts, Highways in Los Angeles, the Painted Bride and San Diego Repertory Theatre. Internationally she's appeared at the Montreal Comedy Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, London ICA and Amsterdam's Triple X Festival.

Film and TV credits: HBO's "Tracey Takes on..."; "Batman Forever" and Barry Levinson's "Sphere." She has twice joined the casts of "The Vagina Monologues."

Marga is the recipient of Theatre LA's Ovation Award for her collaboration with Culture Clash at the Mark Taper Forum. She has also won the Bay Area Theater Critics Circle Outstanding Achievement Award. Selections from Marga's work have been published in several anthologies: Extreme Exposure (TCG Books), Out, Loud & Laughing (Anchor Books), Contemporary Plays by American Women of Color (Routledge) and Out of Character (Bantam Books.)

Marga Gomez, self-described "chick magnet," lives in Brooklyn.

As a child in Pennsylvania, Suzannne Westenhoefer always loved being the center of attention, so she naturally gravitated to acting school. After graduating from college, the pretty blonde moved to New York City and immediately found work--as a bartender. On a dare she entered a comedy contest at a popular cabaret in the West Village and won first prize.

Suzanne started doing stand-up as an openly gay comedian, performing in mainstream comedy clubs as a sort of "lesbian Barbie."

In 1991, she appeared on a groundbreaking episode of the Sally Jesse Raphael show called, "Breaking the Lesbian Stereotype...Lesbians Who Don't Look Like Lesbians." Says, Suzanne, "I still get mail from people who tell me how that show changed their lives. It changed mine too."

Her television credits include "Late Show with David Letterman" (2003) and Comedy Central, Evening at the Improv, Caroline's Comedy Hour and Politically Incorrect. Suzanne continues to perform more than 100 live comedy concerts a year on stages across the country. Her current show plays to sell out crowds, repeating the success of numerous past shows including, "Tour de Femme" and "Banned in Pittsburgh."

Her HBO comedy special, the first by an openly gay comic, was nominated for a Cable Ace award. Suzanne's CD, "Nothing in My Closet But Clothes" is a best-seller and won the GLAMA award for best comedy CD in 1999. Her CD "I'm Not Cindy Brady," has also won acclaim as best comedy CD of the year from GLAMA (Gay and Lesbian American Music Award).

In-between shows and being on the road, Suzanne has acted in independent films, co- hosted fundraisers (Project Angle Food) with Eric McCormack ("Will & Grace"), hosted and headlined at the Montreal Comedy Festival, and appeared on HBO's "Arli$$." Suzanne was nominated for the prestigious GLAAD media award for best Los Angeles theatrical production (a first for stand-up).

Raised in the Pennsylvania Amish country, the youngest of three sisters, Suzanne now divides her time between Los Angeles and Columbus, OH.

Vickie has performed in almost every state in the US over the last five years and has headlined in various venues including: Michigan Womyn's Festival, National Women's Music Festival, Monterrey Beach Women's Festival; and the Dinah & Lina Shore Golf Tournament in Southern California and at numerous clubs, including:

Spellbinder's and The Laff Stop in Houston, Comedy Undergound in Seattle, The Improv in Cleveland, Wall Street in Columbus, Luna Park in LA, 88's in NYC, The Light Project in Miami and Internationally on Olivia Travel cruises & Club Med resorts.

Today, Vickie Shaw is a seasoned comedian hilariously addressing the triumphs and trials of being a woman, a mother and gay in America. Vickie's own life provides the best material for her show:as an out, lesbian mother, she has successfully raised two sons, (one of whom is married with a brand new baby daughter, Vickie's first grand child), has a teenage daughter still living at home, is married to her 'husbian', Sgt. Patch, and on top of all that she is a recovering S.O.B. (Southern Baptist).To date, Vickie Shaw has her own CD : "You're Funny?" My Mom', and is a featured artist on the "Best of Lesbian Comedy" release on Rising Star Records.

Also available is the hilarious video of her "Sick and Wrong" tour. In addition, there are several unique and exciting projects and appearances in the works, including a memorable appearance on Comedy Central's Premium Blend and a movie by Andrea Meyerson ("Laughing Matters"), that will be titled: "More Laughing Matters"

Last year she toured the US with her "La-la-pa-Lesbo Tour", this year with her new "Sick and Wrong Tour" (& the video), she will crack you up!

Hopefully, the future will bring Vickie Shaw to your town for an unforgettable time!

Take a woman born and raised in SF, California under the strict, watchful eye of her dad, a Pentecostal preacher, who insists she goes to college to make something of herself. She earns a business degree and after graduation she passes the CPA exam and goes to work at one of the largest accounting firms in the world and settles into life as a Certified Public Accountant. Then one night, with some friends, she goes to a local comedy club and on a dare-sweetened by $100, she gets onstage to do an unrehearsed routine. Let the audience laugh uproariously and then less than a year later, let that spontaneous woman take a leave from number crunching and hit the road that leads to comedy success. This sounds like an idea for a new television sitcom, but this is the real life story of René Hicks. Such a drastic career switch didn't go over well at home. Her devout mother feared that church members, hearing that René was working in nightclubs, would think that she was a stripper! However, René was smitten by the world of comedy; she had to give it a go.

Now a comedy veteran, René has performed her intelligent and universally appealing humor in countless clubs across the US and internationally, resulting in her having been the first African-American woman ever nominated for an American Comedy Award for "Best Female Stand-Up". She has appeared on numerous television shows, including her own half hour special - "Comedy Central Presents...René Hicks". She has also appeared on Comedy Central's "The World Comedy Tour" and "Premium Blend", ABC's "Politically Incorrect", Showtime's "Full Frontal Comedy" and NBC's "Comedy Showcase" with Louie Anderson. She has also guest starred on ABC's "Hangin' with Mr. Cooper" and appeared in "Low Down Dirty Shame" with Keenan Ivory Wayans. René is also enormously popular on the college campus circuit, having performed or lectured at over 600 colleges and universities throughout the US. She is a two-time recipient of the coveted National College Comedian of the Year Award.

Making the move from accounting to comedy was obviously a sound business decision for René, as being funny is her greatest asset. Her deep level of passion and commitment isn't limited to making people laugh. René has always taken time to give something back to the community, by volunteering with Special Olympics, Caring For Babies With Aids, Project Angel Food and various cancer organizations. "I know that God has blessed me with so much, that it's my duty to in turn give to others", she explains. God's blessings were never more evident than when René recently overcame a major health crisis--lung cancer. "I've never smoked, so I knew God was attempting to strengthen me for some greater purpose. So, I used my God given gift for creating laughter to help me heal." "I immediately realized that it couldn't just be a coincidence that 'humor' rhymed with 'tumor' and in comedy, comics look for words that sound funny and 'tumor' is a funny word." "Two tumors go walking into a bar...see you don't even need a punchline, it just sounds funny." Now it is my mission to be an example for others to enlist humor in aiding them in overcoming obstacles and upheavals in their own lives, whether they be of a life threatening nature or just life impeding.

Rene´ Hicks has successfully interwoven her comedy and her convictions into establishing herself as an internationally known comedian and lecturer, who is determined to use her talents to make a difference. She has often been categorized as "a comic with a social conscious". Most comics have comedy "acts", Rene´ has comedy "activism". Her goal is to always provide a quality entertainment that is not only hilarious, but helps lead to the break down of barriers that can contribute to cultural/social isolation and intolerance, with the end result being human solidarity - all people united in the recognition and strengthening of our common bonds. "There's so much 'politically correct' rhetoric about diversity and multiculturalism, with very little result of actually bringing people together on a lasting basis--I use my humor to try to accomplish that objective."

Wherever René's exploding career takes her, she will always feel at home on a stage, with a mic in hand. "I think stand-up is the only art form where you're really intimate with the audience; you get directly into someone's psyche. You know nothing about them, may have nothing in common with them, but still viscerally touch them. That's why I truly love doing comedy, because laughter brings people together." Whether she is making you laugh about the experiences we have in common or making you laugh about the differences, the message is the same--"We need a lot more laughter in this world and a lot less of the dumb crap that divides us."

Sabrina Matthews is an openly lesbian comic who relates the absurd in everyday life in a witty anecdotal style.

"Sabrina's brand of comedy is infectious," says afterellen.com, and she "regularly draws out big laughs from both gay and straight audiences."

Her hilarious half-hour comedy special, "Comedy Central Presents Sabrina Matthews" was a big hit, she is a star of 2006's hit documentary, Laughing Matters...More! and made her television acting debut in "America's Most Wanted". (Yes, really.) Her hilarious half-hour comedy special, "Comedy Central Presents Sabrina Matthews"

Sabrina began her comedy career in the San Francisco Bay Area, and now appears regularly at clubs, colleges, cruises, and festivals around the world. On the rare days that she is home amidst the doughnut shops and dude-speak of Los Angeles, Sabrina spends her days scuba diving, teaching her dogs not to eat furniture, engaging in her favorite game (Point and Laugh), and generally doing anything else to avoid rifling through the heap of letters from the IRS teetering on her desk in search of tiny, hastily scribbled comedy notes. All in comfortable shoes.

Bruce Vilanch is a two-faced fella: Bearded, he is one of the most sought-after comedy writers in Hollywood, winner of a bunch of Emmys and noted as the " Hollywood Square" just to the left of Whoopi. Shaved, he spent two years as Edna Turnblad, Baltimore housewife and superstar, on tour and on Broadway in the smash musical adaptation of the John Waters film "Hairspray."

Most recently in 2006 , Bruce was seen on VH1's popular fitness and nutrition reality-series, "Celebrity Fit Club," which just finished its third season. Participating in a type of extreme-makeover-body-edition, the Celebrity Fit Clubbers went through 100 days of Fit Club training. Along the way, they learned about fitness, diets and nutrition.

Who knows what Bruce will look like for his next performance? In addition to "Hairspray," he has appeared in such legendary epics as "Ice Pirates," "Mahogany" and " The Morning After." A frequent guest on talk shows, Bruce won his Emmys for co-writing back-to-back Oscar shows with Billy Crystal. He's written 16 Oscar-casts so far, as well as a number of Tony, Grammy, and even Emmy shows, although he never got an Emmy for writing an Emmy--that would be award-show incest of the lowest order. His bizarre career was documented in the film "Get Bruce!," released by Miramax and perpetually available on Buena Vista Home Video.

Bruce's one-man show, "Almost Famous," tickled Off-Broadway audiences for three months and has made a number of appearances around the country. He is frequently mistaken for Brad Pitt.

Taken from a crashed rocket ship in a Kansas cornfield, Andre was adopted and raised in a small town not far from his play-brother Clark Kent....

Actually, he's the corn-fed, beef-eating, milk-drinking, hay-bailing, thicker-than-Snicker, country-ass farm boy that Instinct magazine calls, 'refreshingly defiant.' And, he's the only Black comic in the entire country who's never, ever, ever appeared on B.E.T. Multi-hyphenate, comic-writer-actor, Andre is stand-up's best-known gay farm boy. He's appeared on Comedy Central's Premium Blend, VH1's Best Week Ever, LOGO's Wisecrack and Si TV's Latino Laugh Festival and Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner.

A headlining act with Atlantis Cruises and a featured performer at legendary clubs the Laugh Factory, LA Improv and the Ice House, he's appeared at the Chicago Comedy Festival, Miami Light Project's Come Out Laughing and twice at Michigan's Gay & Lesbian Comedy Fest. He's also opened shows for Bill Maher, Margaret Cho, Carrot Top, Sinbad, Mo'Nique and Bill Hicks.

Currently penning his comedy specials Cornfed, Chick Magnet and The New Black, he's ardently riding what he calls the 'Brokeback Effect.' Having done more than 500 shows in 45 states, audiences nationwide are discovering his broad yet specific appeal.

Comedian and writer Eddie Sarfaty has appeared on The Today Show, Nightline and on Comedy Central's Premium Blend. He is a regular at Caroline's and Gotham Comedy Club in New York and has performed at Montreal's Just for Laughs Comedy Festival, New York's Toyota Comedy Festival and at festivals in Columbus, Detroit, Miami, Phoenix and Washington, DC. Eddie has entertained on college campuses nationwide and at fundraisers for a variety of social and political organizations, including The National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, HRC and Lambda Legal. A favorite of crowds in Key West and Rehoboth, Eddie has also spent many summers in Provincetown, performing solo and as the newest member of the groundbreaking troupe Funny Gay Males. In addition he has been a featured performer for Atlantis Cruises, Aquafest Cruises, Romance Voyages and RSVP Vacations. Recently Eddie's short story Second Guessing Grandma received critical acclaim when it appeared in the bestselling anthology When I Knew by Regan Books, a division of Harper Collins. Since 2003 he has been on the faculty of The Theatre Lab in Washington, DC, where he teaches workshops on comedy writing and performing. Eddie recently signed a book deal with Kensington Press and is also working on several projects as a writer/performer for Logo.