A benefit for Giovanni's Room.
Comedy Night features
Philadelphia's own Liberty City Kings
Kelli Dunham--everyone's favorite ex-nun nerd stand up comic,
CA Conrad-- on American Gluttony (from “The Seven Deadly Sins”),
Cassendre Xavier--on screening your shrink,
Neil McGarry--like a chocolate milk hangover,
and
Cheryl Burke—Astraea-award winning poet and enthusiastic eater of cheese
More about:
Liberty City Kings, aka LiCK, is Philly's only drag king and burlesque queen performance troupe, exploring and exploding the performance expectations of drag and burlesque. LiCK’s drag king hotties will make you squirm, laugh and sing along with their lowbrow humor, while their burlesque beauties captivate audiences with their fun, sexy and down right raunchy shake and shimmy numbers, proving that drag and burlesque needn’t be high class to be fun.
Neil McGarry (neilmcgarry.com/)began his comedy career in 2007 when he decided to give up his $50K a year job with benefits and do stand-up for nothing. Once he learned that telling jokes to drunken audiences in the wee hours of the morning was way more fun than laying out marketing brochures, he never looked back. Neil has performed throughout the Philadelphia area, is the host and producer of the 1-4-5 Show, and was part of Fags and Hags with Joanne Filan and Katie Kohler. (You can decide if he was a fag or a hag.)"
Cheryl Burke (cherylb.com) began her performance career winning poetry slams at the famous Nuyorican Poets Cafe while still a college student. She has since become an internationally acclaimed poet, appearing at most major New York City literary evenings and touring throughout the U.S, Canada and the U.K. Cheryl was also the creator and producer of PVC: The Poetry vs. Comedy Variety Show, a fast-paced live slam/competition between stand-up comedians and performance poets that ran for over two years in New York City. She also created and curated the popular multi-genre Brooklyn reading series, Atomic, in addition to organizing various other literary events throughout the years.
Kelli Dunham (kellidunham.com) is everyone's favorite supa-nerd genderqueer ex nun stand-up comic. She has appeared nationwide at colleges, clubs, the occasional livestock auction and on Showtime and the Discovery Channel. Kelli got her start at Philadelphia's Au Courant, where she penned (err, word-processed) the award-winning humor column “Trippin' Out”
Cassendre Xavier is a self-identified "renaissance negresse" who's mostly been singing and writing in Philadelphia since 1991. Her humor writing, stand up comedy, and funny songs have been featured at Tin Angel, the former Joe Coffee, the Philadelphia Gay News, and anthologies including Dykes with Baggage: A Lighter Side of Lesbians in Therapy and When Falls the Coliseum: A Journal of American Culture Or Lack Thereof. A 2-time former Giovanni's Room employee and an award-winning community cultural arts leader, Cassendre is the founder & executive director of Philadelphia's 7th Annual Black Women's Arts Festival. Visit her at www.cassEndrExavier.com.
CAConrad is the recipient of THE GIL OTT BOOK AWARD for The Book of Frank (Chax Press, 2009). He is also the author of Advanced Elvis Course (Soft Skull Press, 2009), (Soma)tic Midge (Faux Press, 2008), Deviant Propulsion (Soft Skull Press, 2006), and a forthcoming collaboration with poet Frank Sherlock titled THE CITY REAL & IMAGINED: Philadelphia Poems (Factory School Books, 2010). CAConrad is the son of white trash asphyxiation whose childhood included selling cut flowers along the highway for his mother and helping her shoplift. He invites you to visit him online at http://CAConrad.blogspot.comand also with his friends at http://PhillySound.blogspot.com
