From the Marx Brothers to The Simpsons, Richard Pryor to Amy Schumer: 100 bits, sketches, and one-liners that changed humor forever…
The oldest joke on record, a Sumerian proverb, was first told all the way back in1900 B.C. Yes, it was a fart joke: “Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband’s lap.” Don’t feel bad if you don’t get it — something was definitely lost in time and translation (you have to imagine it was the Mesopotamian equivalent of “Women be shopping”), but not before the joke helped pave the way for almost 4,000 years of toilet humor. It’s just a shame we’ll never know the name of the Sumerian genius to whom we oweBlazing Saddles. But with the rise of comedy as a commercial art form in the 20th century, and with advances in modern bookkeeping, it’s now much easier to assign credit for innovations in joke-telling, which is exactly what Vulture set out to do with this list of the 100 Jokes That Shaped Modern Comedy.
For forty years, Elayne Boosler has appeared on seemingly every talk show ever on TV, has written and starred in five one-hour Showtime standup comedy specials, written and directed two movies for Cinemax, appeared on Comic Relief for years, on Politically Incorrect over thirty times, and has hosted specials, series, and events. She has traveled the world doing standup from Las Vegas to colleges to the London Palladium to the White House Press Correspondent’s Dinner for President Clinton, to clubs and theaters everywhere. She has performed for the Queen of England as well as the President and Congress at Ford’s Theater. She even moderated the Democratic Presidential Candidates Debate on C-Span for NOW. Oh, and one more thing – she is very active in animal protection issues and just recently hosted the gala benefitting the Stray Cat Alliance.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Elayne is basically bi-coastal, shuttling between LA, the Big Apple and all points in between. When asked which city she thinks is best for pet lovers she replied, “If it’s between NY and LA I’ll say NY, which may be counter intuitive to people who think there’s open land out here and more houses and more space, but NY is definitely more pet friendly. There are many more places to enjoy the outdoors with your pets; they’re welcomed on restaurant patios in NY; and there isn’t a store you can walk by in NY anymore where there isn’t a dog water bowl outside. They also have a fantastic homeless outreach program in NY where they offer people who are homeless all this monthly pet care – which gets them in off the street, and subsequently they are cared for too without really knowing it because they won’t come in for that. So it gives the city a big leg up on helping the homeless through helping their animals, which is a fantastic thing.”
“What has changed here in LA is the incredible rescue community that fights for getting the pet stores closed; getting them to sell animals from the shelters; getting them to let us claim animals before they kill them. It’s the animal community in LA that is so spectacular and that seems to be where all the forward steps are made.”
Elayne’s love of animals came from her very first dog, a purebred Boxer named Carbide. “He was my first password,” she says. “I was 4, so I looked up into these nostrils and ran! I was terrified, because my mother instilled fear in us of animals. It was the most frightening, horrible couple of weeks of my life until I fell in love with him. He was everything to me. Needless to say I was raised by the Taliban in Brooklyn and left home very early, and my ally was this dog. I didn’t leave home until he died at 13. He was the only tenderness, the only love, the only softness, the only protection I really had. When I explained my life to a shrink she said there had to be someone who taught you empathy and love because… someone had to be there to teach you to be a human being, which you really are. And I said it was the dog. And she said yes, that’s absolutely acceptable.”
These days in addition to her busy stand-up schedule that takes her around the country, Elayne also runs her own animal rescue organization – Tails of Joy (www.tailsofjoy.net). Before that, however, she said, “I wanted to learn everything I could about rescue and spent five years with Boxer Rescue. I was on their Board, I walked dogs, did the medicines, learning what rescue really means. I went to their adoption events and took dogs on the FOX Morning News once a month for years. I eventually got them the full down payment for their Sun Valley kennel which could house a hundred dogs, and they really got big, fast, which was fantastic. I always knew I wanted to help the little guys, who really needed it, and that’s what they were when I got there, so I was glad to leave them in such fantastic shape and turn my attention back to the little guys in need. That’s what Tails of Joy is.”
“Our mission statement is we help the smallest, neediest rescue groups across the country and beyond. And that’s what I do.”
Besides performing, Elayne raises money in numerous ways for her Tails of Joy rescue. On her website she sells jewelry that has been specifically designed and manufactured for Tails of Joy. “You won’t see it anywhere else,” she explains. “And there are other items also made special for us by wonderful sewing and quilting angels from all over the country. In addition to shopping, people can make donations through the website… even monthly, $5 dollar donations. We also use social media a lot to raise money and tell people we have new items. Those monthly donations – people apologize for only donating $10 a month – I beg them not to apologize. If everyone donated $10 a month we could plan ahead, we’d never run out of money, we’d know what was coming up. $10 a month would make our work possible forever! It’s not little, it’s HUGE!”
“At my shows I talk about Tails of Joy, they see the items, I encourage them to go to the website to buy them. When I’m not in their town they can earmark what rescue they want their purchase price to go to. I make it so interactive. If you want to buy jewelry from us and want your rescue in Texas to get the money, just tell us and we’ll send it to them. Tails of Joy doesn’t raise money for itself. We don’t keep a bank account. Everything that comes in goes out… that week. Basically we just want to know where you want that money to go to. Initially because I was on the road all those years and I would see three little old ladies in Ohio saving more cats and dogs than the entire bloated Humane Society of the United States, I knew they did the work but didn’t have the fundraising infrastructure. I really wanted to set this up to keep people like that going.”
“Most places I perform are not about animal rescue – they’re just gigs,” Elayne continues. “But what I do is this: I’m headed for Chicago so I’ll be choosing two rescues there, as I do in every city to join in our advertising, to have free tickets to a show, because rescuers burn out. They will wear their shirts. They’ll bring all their info. They’ll bring their products. I end with all the animal stuff on stage and I introduce them from the audience and tell the audience we’re all going to be in the back. I’ll sign everything. They will sell their stuff and give out their info and every penny we take in stays in the city in which I’m playing. I make that clear on stage so people understand whatever they buy is going to help local Chicago rescues that night. And we put out a donation jar and people ask, ‘is it really staying here?’ I say here are your people. They smile and they throw in money and buy more than they would and we leave it all behind in each city. So that’s where the money goes when I’m on tour.”
“Then those rescues are added to our Little Guy Grants page on our website and we constantly funnel money back into rescues I’ve seen. I always visit their facilities and meet the people. Ones that are struggling, working hard, small… we always keep them in the hopper and often donate several times a year once we’ve met them in person.”
“Here’s another great thing I started because so many people on Facebook and Twitter now need help who have supported us. Our new thing is get your money back. We’ve been here for 14 years so far; we’re not going anywhere. If your pet needs help and you have supported us, I go through the records and find every donation you have ever made and start by giving that back to you in total. That’s our first donation to you, and then we look at what we can do after that. Once you’ve shown your support we will bend over backwards for you. It really is like a great Pet Savings account – that money is put away for you.”
The newest aspect of Tails of Joy is the Edith and Julie’s Spay and Neuter Fund. “Mostly what I do all day is call veterinarians across the country,” Elayne explains. “Whether it’s for a group or a person. I’m certainly not going to send an individual money. So I talk to the vet and also ask about previous care by this pet owner. Is this a good pet owner? Is there a history or did they just find you last week? I also demand a rescue discount, which often works, but not always. The only other thing we’ll do for individuals if we really scope it out and it’s real is I will go to Amazon and send food, or medicine. We will get them what they need if we can. And now we’ve added spay and neuter support.”
If people live in an area where there is no low cost spay/neuter services, they can contact Elayne through her tailsofjoy.net website or Facebook page. “We also try to work with the vets to encourage a greater discount if we can send fifty or a hundred people to them,” she says. “I’m hoping this will be self-funding, which is why I haven’t given it all away in three minutes. I’m trying to find a way to have this spay and neuter fund grow and get matching funds… that’s what I have someone working on now. We’ve only given out a few different grants of only about $2500 dollars each, which isn’t much. But, for instance, there’s an area outside of LA where they aren’t allowed to use government money for stray cat funding… so with $2500 we started their little fund for quietly doing the stray cats.”
“As far as how I decide who gets money, it’s very haphazard, I’m ashamed to say, however it seems to work well. Like I said, the smallest, neediest rescue groups across the country. I must get 500 emails a day – I’m on every list. We’re not big enough to have to vote with a Board to see who gets this money (which also holds it up for a month and then the dog is dead due to missed surgeries.) It’s very hands-on. I just start looking at the needs. Basically it’s where will we get the most bang for the buck. A lot of it is ‘my dog needs knee surgery for $3,000 dollars.’ What I do is look at what the person is doing herself to help her own animal get the surgery – are you trying to sell a few things? Are you having a car wash? And that’s who I help.”
People can reach Elayne through her website. “Everyone seems to find me,” she says. “It’s either info@tailsofjoy.net, or elayne@tailsofjoy.net. And a lot of them have come through the Tails of Joy Facebook page or on Twitter.”
Elayne doesn’t have any permanent dogs living with her at this time because of all the travelling she’s been doing, but she does do a lot of babysitting, and plans to rescue a few dogs next year.
“Senior dogs are my heart’s work. I adore them. When we get our new dogs we’re definitely getting seniors. Not all seniors but at least one, maybe two. Seniors are completely aware. They’ve lived a long life, god knows how and where. When they come into your house you will never have a problem with a senior. They’re trained, they’re evolved, they’re socialized. They’re move-in ready. They vacuum. They’ll do your taxes. They can help you cook. And they ask for nothing. Just a little kindness. Nothing will fill your heart as much as bringing a dog that has just been through hell and back into your house. Every senior I’ve known will take a bullet for you. Their gratefulness and love is beyond all else.”
“Everyone thinks Tails of Joy only does dogs, because I talk about them the most and there are always pictures of dogs. But we do everything. Whatever suits your lifestyle – if you’re in an apartment with kids get a couple of hamsters and let them learn about how much fun these little animals are. We also help small exotic groups, bird associations and wildlife societies. Any animal that suits your lifestyle and family is the best animal for you.”
“The reason I stayed in comedy this long is because I’m just worth more to the animals and the rescue world with even the little bit of profile I have as opposed to just diving head into rescue without keeping my name and face out there. I think when people are donating they give it to me instead of another rescue of our size because it’s me. So it’s really important to keep going just so people want to donate to rescue. By what I’ve done over the last twenty years, starting with Boxer rescue, I’ve helped change the conversation. I’ve seen people go from showing me their purebred animals to showing me their purebred rescue animals. The conversation has changed; the consciousness has changed, and it’s changing more every day. Being in public and going on TV and radio and all of us who do that in show business, and there are so many great people doing that… it has helped change the consciousness of America, and I think it’s important to continue that. Of course if I could only do one thing in my life it would be rescue, but I do feel that comedy helps me do that.”
“The most important thing I believe in for everyone is don’t put it off,” Elayne says. “Just because you can’t do everything doesn’t mean you can’t do anything. People constantly email me, ‘oh, I wish I could help and if I ever get the money I’m gonna…’ And I write back, you don’t have to wait. You don’t need the money. You have half an hour a week? Start there. Every little thing you can do to make lives better for people with animals, for animals, for anyone needing help with a pet – do it! I started off at Boxer rescue by simply waking up really early, which is hell for me, on weekends and going to walk as many dogs as I could… on those days before adoptions so they would be calm and friendly when they were taken out of the cage again. I didn’t know anything. I showed up, I leashed them up, I walked them. That led to wow, what’s this going on here? Everything leads to more and you find out. It’s never going to be the perfect time. Every $5 dollars helps, every five minutes helps. If this is in your heart to do this, you cannot wait. Everything you do makes a better today. So if you can’t do everything, just do something!”
In January Elayne will be releasing a Box Set of DVD’s of four of her best stand-up Showtime specials, with all new wrap-arounds shot this year to put the shows in context, explaining what comedy was like then and now. The shows are from 1986 – 1992 and the set includes an extra one-hour CD that’s made up from her tours over the last three years.
In the coming months Elayne will be doing a few shows around the country, and will be making a return appearance on The Tonight Show. For her complete schedule of events and information purchasing her Box Set of DVD’s (a portion of the proceeds will benefit Tails of Joy) go to ElayneBoosler.com. For information about her rescue organization, visit tailsofjoy.net where, not only will you be entertained and educated, you can also buy some really terrific stuff that, as you’ve read here, benefits animals throughout the country. In fact, make it your one-stop place for your holiday shopping!
Iliza Shlesinger sits down with comedic icon ELAYNE BOOSLER to discuss life as a comic, annoying things comics deal with, annoying things female comics deal with, and the overall stupidity of morning radio hosts. They also trade songs they sing to their animals and it is THE MOST AMAZING PIECE OF MUSIC EVER PRODUCED!
Henry Rollins once said “Nothing brings people together more than mutual hatred”- and Iliza Shlesinger believes that. It’s the driving force behind war, political movements, and trickling all the way down to a really good cat fight on an episode of Real Housewives. Iliza believes that there is too much positivity in the world and we all get excited for things that make us happy for moments, but ultimately fade. “Truth and Iliza” believes that anger lasts longer than love; and sometimes anger can create a beautiful thing. Join Iliza Shlesinger and her friends as they talk about all the things that bother them on “Truth and Iliza” every Tuesday! Produced by the world famous Laugh Factory.
On a typical night in the mid-1970s at The Improv, a comedy club in the then-sketchy Hell’s Kitchen section of New York City, rookie comic Elayne Boosler would serve as the club’s door person and often get saddled with the 3 a.m. slot, stand-up’s version of paying dues.
But as a newbie, Boosler didn’t always get to do that spot, because if more famous comics dropped in unexpectedly, her set was the first to be cut. And as a new comedian at a time when places dedicated to performing comedy were rare, Boosler was bumped by the best, including Richard Pryor, Lily Tomlin, Rodney Dangerfield and Jay Leno. The strangest, though, were the nights when her time was cut so that Andy Kaufman could take the stage. At the time, he was Boosler’s live-in boyfriend.
“Not only were we in love, but he taught me everything about comedy. He’s the reason I’m a comedian,” Boosler says. “When he had something special he wanted to try, he’d apologize to me and say, ‘I don’t think you’re going to get a spot tonight. I need to do an hour.’ Of course, I understood and rooted for him.”
Not only were we in love, but he taught me everything about comedy.
So did the audience, as Boosler’s loss was their gain. And it continues to be so, as the celebrity drop-in has become a tradition, one that is enjoying a golden age. At shows throughout New York and Los Angeles, comedy fans are treated weekly to unexpected sets by the likes of Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Aziz Ansari, Louis CK and Jerry Seinfeld. A-list comedians use these sets to work out new material, connect with audiences in an intimate club environment and stretch their creative muscles in between larger theater shows and other show business endeavors.
The Improvisation club opened in 1963, initially show-casing singers. But within a year or so, the emphasis switched to comedy, making it the world’s first dedicated comedy club. Founder Budd Friedman has seen Milton Berle drop in at 3 a.m. and ad-lib onstage for hours, and Friedman recalls the first time he met Rodney Dangerfield, around 1964 or ’65, during that legend’s first drop-in at the club.
“He comes in for the first time, and he’s this drunk walking in at about two in the morning,” Friedman says. “He introduces himself and says, ‘I’d like to go up.’ And he bombed, because he was so drunk. He came back the next night, sober, and went onstage as if to say, ‘I’ll show these punks.’ He mopped up the room and became a regular at the Improv after that.”
As the club developed competition throughout the ’70s, drop-ins became more common. By the early ’80s, the form found a master, unsurprisingly, in Robin Williams. Bill Grundfest co-founded New York’s Comedy Cellar, known today as the primary spot for A-list drop-ins, in 1982, and recalls Williams as the first big comic to drop into the club unannounced, about a year later.
“I was onstage, emceeing,” he recalls. “In the doorway, in a yellow rain slicker, there’s this guy, and he gives me this little wave. I say to myself, ‘Holy s***, it’s Robin Williams.’ I say to the audience, ‘Our next guy has been doing very nicely. You may have seen him on several TV shows. Please welcome Robin Williams.’ The audience thought I was putting them on, and they kinda giggled. But then they see who’s walking to the stage, and there’s this collective ‘Holy s***,’ and the place just burst. For five minutes they would not stop.”
This reaction is the norm for drop-ins. When MCs announce surprise sets by superstars, there’s always a brief lull—since the crowd isn’t sure it’s not a joke—until they see the performer. Then they go wild. Sometimes the drop-in surprised even Williams himself. Caroline Hirsch, founder and owner of Carolines, recalls a night in 2006 when Jeff Garlin of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” was headlining. His “Curb” castmate Cheryl Hines was in New York promoting the movie RV, which she co-starred in with Williams, and the two came to the club to see Garlin.
“They’re watching Jeff, and somebody heckles him,” says Hirsch. “All of a sudden, from the back of the room you hear an Irish accent start to heckle the heckler. It was Robin. Jeff said to the heckler, ‘Hey, you’re no match for this guy.’ Then he introduced Robin, and Robin went onstage.”
Early on, the etiquette of the drop-in was unclear even to those who ran the clubs, as Grundfest realized the first time Jerry Seinfeld dropped into the Cellar, around 1984.
“It was during the week, and we were paying $15 a set,” he says. “I couldn’t decide if I should pay him or not. Would I insult him by not offering to pay him anything, or would I insult him by paying him $15? So I said, ‘Jerry, I feel compelled to offer you this $15.’ Under great duress and eye-rolling, and Jerry’s saying, ‘It’s completely not necessary,’ I relieved myself of the $15, which I believe found its way onto a waitress’s tray.”
Chris Mazzilli, the co-founder of New York’s Gotham Comedy Club, which has served as a favorite drop-in spot for big names since it opened in 1996, recalls how the first time Seinfeld dropped in, around 1999, his set created great buzz for the club. “This was pre–Internet boom, pre-Facebook, pre-Twitter,” says Mazzilli. “I was playing on a soccer team then, and I showed up to practice, and two guys in completely different businesses were like, ‘Hey, I heard Seinfeld was at your club last night.’ It didn’t hit the news. They just heard through word of mouth. That’s how big a deal this was.”
Sometimes, audiences are blessed with multiple drop-ins in the same show. Mazzilli recalls a night in the early aughts, when Robert Klein was doing a regular Wednesday night run at Gotham. Seinfeld and George Carlin came to see him, and both wound up taking the stage. Then, the three congregated in the club’s bar after the show, swapping stories as audience members hovered around them trying to catch every word.
“The whole [crowd] came out of the showroom and surrounded the guys. It was amazing,” says Mazzilli. “One woman started to hyperventilate. I got her a chair, and she said, ‘You know, I’m from Ohio, and things like this don’t happen in Ohio.’ I said, ‘You know what? You’re right.’”
Over the past few years, comedy and pop culture blogs have swelled with accounts of drop-ins from Rock, Chappelle, CK, Seinfeld, Jim Gaffigan, Dane Cook and many more, as at least one seems to grace a small club stage every week. The most legendary drop-in in recent times took place at the Comedy Cellar, on February 27, 2013. That night, Rock—probably the most prolific comedy dropper-in today, and such a fan of the surprise club set that he featured one as a plot point in his recent film Top Five—wowed a stunned audience with a set. Then on came Chappelle for a 45-minute drop-in. And then, Chappelle called Rock, Kevin Hart, Bill Bellamy and Marlon Wayans onstage to riff with him, pass the microphone, and share funny tales of their years of experiences with each other. While the night garnered major press coverage, including an oral history–style retelling in GQ, those kinds of magical nights are not unusual at the Cellar.
“One night, a few years ago, I had Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock and Ray Romano back to back, on the same show,” says Estee Adoram, the club’s longtime booker and manager. “Leaving the show, people were on their cell phones, like, ‘You’re not gonna believe what just happened.’”
Part of what makes the drop-in so special is that it’s almost entirely unique to stand-up comedy. Unlike other performing arts, such as acting or playing music, stand-up cannot be workshopped or rehearsed without an audience, so performing live is the only true way to gauge timing and feedback on a routine. Drop-ins, therefore, give A-list comedians the chance to work out new material in front of audiences that didn’t drop big bucks on tickets and baby-sitters, and therefore won’t feel cheated by a set that’s not as tight as an HBO special.
“The expectations for a set like this are completely different,” says Sean McCarthy, who runs the comedy website The Comic’s Comic. “If you’re working Radio City Music Hall or the Beacon Theatre, people have carved out their whole night to see you, and they’re coming with expectations. But if you’re dropping in and surprising them, then you have the advantage, because misdirection and surprise are at the heart of comedy.”
In fact, Adoram says that when Rock—who’ll often take the stage for drop-ins holding a yellow pad with notes for new jokes—drops into the Cellar, lowering expectations is his first order of business. “Chris starts his show, everybody’s screaming, and he says, ‘Calm down. It’s not gonna be as great as you think.’ Which, by itself, is funny.”
Given that comedians are usually trying new jokes when they drop in, these sets give crowds a chance to see stars do something they rarely do in public: fail.
“I’ve seen CK and Gaffigan drop into the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York and struggle, but they were trying new stuff,” says Adam Newman, a comedian who’s had his own half-hour special on Comedy Central and who’s been bumped at a club by Seinfeld. “So I’ve seen those guys struggle, but how great is that? It shows us that the process continues, no matter how long you’ve been in the game.”
New York Times comedy critic Jason Zinoman recalls a night he saw CK drop into a popular show called “Whiplash” at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.
“When he went onstage, it was absolute pandemonium. People were going insane,” he says. “What was interesting to me was that his set wasn’t that good. It was not terrible, but he was clearly working some stuff out, and it really wasn’t working. And yet, the audience went berserk over every joke. It was fascinating to see how sometimes you can’t trust the audience, and how fame is a challenge, because CK has to figure out whether his stuff is working or not by the audience applause.”
The other side of the drop-in equation is the lesser-known comics, like Boosler in the ’70s, who get bumped for the A-listers, then have the pressure of having to follow the greats.
New York comic Sam Morril, who’s performed on “Conan,” has been bumped by Seinfeld, CK and Gaffigan, but his greatest challenge came when, at the Cellar, he had to follow consecutive sets by Rock and Chappelle.
Rather than feeling the pressure of inflated audience expectations, Morril says the grandeur of what had come before actually lightened the load.
“The crowd is in a good mood, because this is what they dreamed of. When you go to the Cellar, that’s what you hope happens. So I’m going up there with house money,” he says. “Anything I give them is a bonus.”
As most in this situation will do, Morril made light of the circumstance, giving him a laugh right out of the gate.
“You have to address the elephant in the room,” he says. “I said something along the lines of, ‘You just saw two of the most iconic comics of our time, and now, some dips*** you never heard of.’ That got a huge laugh.”
The presence of A-listers can even turn into career opportunities for newer comedians. Jim Tews was performing in a “Whiplash” show at the Upright Citizens Brigade in 2013 on a night when CK dropped in. The famous comic watched Tews’ set and wound up hiring him to perform on his wildly popular FX show, “Louie.”
“Luckily, I had a good set,” Tews says. “That was a weird added pressure, since I knew he was there. I was like, well, I better not suck. I came backstage after and he was very complimentary.” Tews got a Twitter message from CK a month later; CK asked to see more of his material and eventually hired him to perform on the show’s Emmy-winning episode “So Did the Fat Lady.”
But as great as these sets are for clubs, crowds and newer comics, their deepest value is felt by the superstars themselves. Several years into her career, Boosler was still living with Kaufman and still scrounging for spots, but she had more confidence in her abilities and her place in the stand-up community.
“One night, Andy came in and said, ‘I have to do an hour tonight,’” she recalls. “The club owner looked at me and said, ‘OK if your boyfriend takes your spot?’ I said, ‘No!’ Andy said, ‘Right answer. Now you’re a true comic. I’m so proud of you.’ And he kissed me, then said, ‘But I’m still taking your spot.’”
Larry Getlen has written for New York magazine, Time and Esquire, and is a regular contributor to the New York Post. He once saw Dave Chappelle surprise a half-empty bar in Manhattan with a half-hour set riffing on the DJ’s albums.
Cecily Strong has been initiated into an elite sorority.
As of Saturday night, the SNL star is the most recent woman—LYLAS!—to host the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, and the fourth member of an exclusive group that includes Paula Poundstone (1992), Elayne Boosler (1993), and Wanda Sykes (2009). Continue reading..
Comedy legends Richard Lewis, David Brenner, The Amazing Kreskin, Robert Klein, Garry Shandling, and Elayne Boosler on the subject of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
For forty years, Elayne Boosler has appeared on seemingly every talk show ever on TV, has written and starred in five one-hour Showtime standup comedy specials, written and directed two movies for Cinemax, appeared on Comic Relief for years, on Politically Incorrect over thirty times, and has hosted specials, series, and events. She has traveled the world doing standup from Las Vegas to colleges to the London Palladium to the White House Press Correspondent’s Dinner for President Clinton, to clubs and theaters everywhere. She has performed for the Queen of England as well as the President and Congress at Ford’s Theater. She even moderated the Democratic Presidential Candidates Debate on C-Span for NOW. Oh, and one more thing – she is very active in animal protection issues and just recently hosted the gala benefitting the Stray Cat Alliance.
