Support a new home for independent comedy in the East Village →
If you’ve spent any time in New York comedy, you know Carol Hartsell and Kambri Crews. Carol (among many other things) produces the ECNY Awards and runs countless shows; Kambri was (among many other things) the force behind Ochi’s Lounge, the much-missed independent comedy space at Comix. And seriously, those “among other things” are like, two dozen things each; they’re each accomplished comedians and performers in their own right.
In the last year, Carol and Kambri have taken over a performance space called Luca Lounge on the Lower East Side, and they’re using it to produce free, comic-run comedy shows in a performer- and audience-friendly environment every night of the week. And, again, if you are a person who has spent any time at all in the New York comedy scene, you know that that is huge. The makeup of the New York comedy world is 49% entitled club owners who only care about wringing a two-drink minimum out of tourists, 49% shitty shows in the back rooms of bars where the only audience is drunk people on dates who didn’t know there’d be a show that night, and 2% UCB and the Creek. We need more.
Carol, Kambri, and their collaborators are creating a legitimate comedy venue that respects comedians, respects audiences, and sits in the center of New York City’s nightlife district. They’re experienced, seasoned operators who know what they’re doing, and they will make it happen. However, they need a little capital for renovations. They’ve started a Kickstarter campaign to raise the $8,000 they need to get the space up to snuff.
As I write this, they’re a little under $3,000 away from meeting their funding goal with just nine days left. And I can tell that a lot of people are aware of the project but haven’t chipped in yet, because the project has 292 “Likes” on Facebook, but only 84 backers. Not good enough. Carol and Kambri’s project benefits all of us, and we need to support it. So:
- If you’re a comedian in New York City, put your money where your mouth tells jokes and pony up. Skip two open mics this week, peel ten dollars off the stack of tips you got at the Times Square Red Lobster, and make an investment in your career by helping to open the new, artist-friendly independent comedy space we all so desperately need.
- If you’re a fan of comedy in New York City, skip your next visit to a shitty comedy club and chip in one-fifth of the cost of your two drinks, your half-frozen mozzarella sticks, and the mystery charge they added to your bill hoping you wouldn’t notice so that you have a place to see awesome, cheap, honestly funny comedy shows every night of the week.
- If you aren’t a comedian and hate comedy, maybe just chip in because you’re impressed that I’m showing some initiative and can-do attitude for once and you just want to be supportive of that and also you’re my parents.
- If you don’t feel comfortable marching and waving signs because the messages thereon strike you as somewhat reductive and simplistic, but you support protests anyway because they provide political leverage to issues you care about, donate to Occupy Wall Street. I know that’s unrelated but as long as I’m asking you to chip into things, hey. But after you do that, support Luca Lounge too. It’s going to be great.
