Also on the bill are Geoff Tate, Gabe Kea, Kelly Collette and Faith Mueller, as well as several up-and-coming comics from the region.
“We’re calling it a national comedy festival, but it’s really a benefit,” says New York City-based comic Emily Winter, who helped organize the What a Joke events. “I’ve been calling it a lot of different things. It is happening all over the country and in Oxford, England.”
The aim is to raise money for the American Civil Liberties Union as Trump assumes his role, and is a direct response to his repeated threats to human rights and civil liberties.
“I’m scared,” Winter says. “I would love to give the ACLU tons of money to dismantle the whole system, but I don’t think that’s going to happen and it’s terrifying. This man (Trump) is a crazy person. When you look at his tweets, you’re like, ‘This sounds like a 12-year-old boy.’ It’s crazy.”
Winter, along with fellow comic Jenn Welch, was inspired to create the multi-city festival on election night.
“I was very sad like many people,” Winter says, “and really just wanted to do something. I started talking to Jenn (Welch) and we reached out to people in other cities to see if we could do a multi-city benefit.”
The pair started out by contacting comedians that they knew in other cities around the country.
“Fortunately, comedians have a great network because we travel, we do festivals, we go on the road,” Winter says. “So we meet people from other places. We started talking to some of the comedians we knew and that we really liked and trusted to run a great show, and they put us in contact with producers and promoters they knew.”
Though the shows are inspired by the inauguration, the comedy won’t necessarily be wall-to-wall political.
“We are not pushing any comedian to do specifically political material,” Winter says. “Certainly it’s available to them, and on inauguration weekend it will be very topical, but they can talk about whatever they want to or whatever they feel good doing a set about. We hope that will result in a very diverse show.”
In Cincinnati, comedian Chalifoux says he will focus on politics.
“I write about what I’m thinking about, and it was hard to escape this election,” he says. “So naturally I ended up writing more. It’s tough having more topical jokes, because the news can shift so quickly. It was fun doing jokes about Bernie Sanders and Carly Fiorina, but those were goners once they were out of the race.”
Chalifoux tried to focus on certain aspects of the election. “I ended up writing about the way people talked about the election,” he says. “Facebook was home to daily bare-knuckle brawls and a tidal wave of fake news. Amateurish memes had way more impact on what people believed than well-researched, well-written stories by journalists. What a time to be alive!”
Local comedian Kea believes this show — and the national What a Joke effort — serves a good purpose.
“I believe comedy is the best way to disseminate information whether it be political or not,” he says. “And I am excited about this show. It’s a great lineup. When I first read the line-up to my fiancé, she said, ‘I want to go to that show.’ ”
Winter hopes this will be an annual event, though she has more immediate plans after the inauguration.
“On January 21, I have a massage scheduled,” she says. “That’s very important. This has been amazing, but also the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”
WHAT A JOKE occurs 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Woodward Theater, 1404 Main St., Over-the-Rhine. Tickets are $10 at the door. More info: whatajokefest.com.
