Tomorrow night October 15th is the kick-off for the first ever Hysterical Festival, celebrating fierce female humor in New York City!

The Festival runs October 15-18 at Comix Comedy Club, The Zipper Theater, The Tank @ DCTV & Tribeca Film Center, and will include work by cutting-edge stand-up comedians, world-renowned burlesque performers, award-winning improv and sketch groups, seasoned solo performers, writers and filmmakers, as well as a panel discussion co-sponsored by New York Women in Film and Television as part of our aim enrich and expand our local community of female humorists.

The fabulous events include: Laughing Liberally (with former Take Part blogger Katie Halper!), Kick Off Show, Word! (Funny writers), Haters Ball, Sister Solo (solo shows), The Baby Mamas of Comedy, The Ambiguously Brown Comedy Hour, Hysterical Femmes, The Kissing Booth, Freaks & Geeks, Family Hour with Auntie Sara, Girls Gone Gay, Nice Jewish Girls Gone Hysterical, Funny Bones Burlesque, shows with festival headliner Maria Bamford and so much more! Oh and my show Stripped Stories will be presenting a special all lady line-up as part of the Hysterical Festival tomorrow night, October 15th 9:30pm at Comix 353 West 14th Street. (If you want discount tickets to my show message me.)

If you live in NYC you must come to one if not all of these awesome shows, festival executive director Desiree Burch and her team of talented gals have worked so hard to make these events possible ( I had coffee with Ms. Burch just over a year ago where she dreamed of an all-female festival and now boom! It’s a reality! Yeah for making it happen!) For a full calendar of events visit http://thehystericalfestival.com/festcal_wed.html.
And takepart and visit http://thehystericalfestival.com to support women in comedy!

Politicians want to pick his brain, women want to play with his ponytail; as social movement movers and shakers go, Drinking Liberally co-founder Justin Krebs is a virtual whirling dervish of democratic dynamism (while I, alas, am a compulsive abuser of alliteration.)

He’s faster than a speeding blog post! More powerful than a local motormouth! Able to leap tall blowhards in a single soundbite!

In his spare time, when he’s not busy building community, defending democracy, and Living Liberally, the charismatic Krebs is a cultural impresario and all-around-stand-up guy (literally–in his spare time, he does comedic improv.) Justin also co-founded the non-profit performing arts space The Tank, a Tribeca mecca for grassroots good times and “an incubator of hip, indie, up-and-comers in the arts,” according to Harvard magazine .

It’s ludicrous how many lives this George Bailey-on-steroids has touched. He’s amassed a stockpile of social capital that politicians and entrepreneurs twice his age would love to have, and he’s not even thirty.

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I’m writing from the Young People For summit in Washington D.C. Living Liberally is one of the co-organizers and Laughing Liberally will be performing tomorrow. Last year when I performed at the summit,  I was thrilled to meet the “YP4 Fellows,” the young leaders and activists, who receive training and and support from YP4. I was struck by these energetic, open-minded, progressive, diverse, dynamic, and inspiring college students.

But this year, I have to admit, when I arrived at the hotel where the YP4 fellows are staying I was a little disappointed by what I saw. The people sitting in the lobby were much older, straighter, whiter, boring-er, and stuffier than I had remembered them being last year.   In the sea of white, suit-wearing people,whose age ranged from 50-80, my earings were literally the most ethnic things there. Is this what has become of the young progressive movement, I wondered in fear. Then I learned that the hotel was hosting the Republican National Committee’s Winter Meeting. And it all made sense. Phew!

Like what you see at YP4 more than at the RNC meeting? Then sponsor a YP4 fellow.