Arts & Entertainment
Laugh It Off With Bay Area Comedy Streaming
There's a variety of Bay Area-based comedy available online.
BAY AREA, CA — Tired of being tired because you've sheltered in place so long your un-dyed hair is almost its natural color? Hate that no clothes fit those unnatural extra 15 pounds COVID-19 added?
Try laughing at those ideas — and your other imperfections and neuroses. Or, better yet, try laughing at the variety of Bay Area-based comedy available online.
You might begin, for example, with "Crazy Funny Asians." The name of this live San Francisco-based show, organized by the Funcheap website, refers to the movie "Crazy Rich Asians" but has no other connection to it. It Zooms every Friday night at 8.
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The show, hosted by K. Cheng but featuring a different lineup each week, lasts 45 minutes and is free (though donations are accepted). Find tickets here.
Different, too, is "Lockdown Comedy," aimed at folks who like to watch standup while sitting on a couch.
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The new monthly series, which has drawn folks from as far as Kathmandu and Berlin, appears via Zoom from 7 to 8:15 p.m. the third Thursday of each month.
It's emceed by Lisa Geduldig, producer of San Francisco's annual Christmastime extravaganza, "Kung Pao Kosher Comedy."
The last "Lockdown" stream featured San Francisco's Diane Amos and Geduldig's 89-year-old mother.
Think about it, says the host: Zooming eliminates the hassle for a parking spot.
Want another distraction from fires and viruses? Michael Patrick Gaffney's one-man show may fill that bill by serving tasty tidbits about his being a high-end waiter to the stars and a professional actor.
"The Oldest Living Cater Waiter" — a virtual production of 42nd Street Moon in San Francisco — showcases the "S-ence" of Gaffney's characters with "just the right amount of sauciness, Shakespeare and a soup on of self-discovery."
"Waiter" runs 6 p.m. Thursdays-Sundays, through Oct. 25. Tickets are $20. Learn more here.
Another potential diversion skips Halloween and jumps to Turkey Day.
"The Thanksgiving Play" is Larissa FastHorse's ensemble satire about good intentions crashing into absurd assumptions.
The comedy begins Nov. 6, live streamed from the Left Edge Theatre in Santa Rosa through Nov. 15, then on-demand Nov. 16-29. Get tickets, between $10 and $30, at here.
Finally, satirist-monologist Josh Kornbluth has penned a new show.Like his previous solo outings, "Citizen Brain" is offbeat and looks at a serious subject through a cerebral clown's lens: Can a neurotic storyteller who flunked every science class spark a science-based revolution of empathy?
Kornbluth's latest will play on a pay-what-you-can scale, 7 p.m. Fridays-Sundays through Nov. 8, and Thursday, Oct. 22, via Berkeley's Shotgun Players.
When he's not spending his Fridays performing for Shotgun Players, the writer/performer/provocateur is also a regular at San Francisco's The Marsh, where he wears a different hat 7:30 p.m. Fridays hosting a free online "Bingo Night." Info about the gig, on Zoom and YouTube, can be found here.
By Woody Weingarten / Bay City News Foundation
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