Stand-Up Stay Home!

The world’s best artist, Victoria Bradley, made us this incredible logo! Thanks, Victoria! :)

Helloooo from day 79 of quarantine! I’ve been sheltered-in-place since March 10th here in Seattle, doing my part to help flatten the curve. There have been many challenges during this time but I’ve felt so thankful to be in a position to stay home. I also feel grateful that THAT what was asked of me. Stay home? Sure. I can do that. And while the limits of my self-described “homebody” lifestyle have been truly tested, I’m happy to do my part. I’m Rachel during the Gellar Cup: Just at the other end of the field, serving the team by staying out of the way. Sometimes that’s how you can best help your F-R-I-E-N-D-S. Finding out your work is “non-essential” presents its own sorts of challenges. Living in a world without connection and gatherings has been a reminder of just how much we humans NEED to connect and gather. To quote the Counting Crows quoting Joni Mitchell: “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone?” (Your girl’s on a massive Joni Mitchell kick lately. Forgive me. Have you heard Brandi Carlile’s cover of “A Case of You?” If not, go watch that now. I’ll wait.) 

Comedy venues were among the first to close down here in Seattle and it has been crazy town to not see all of my comedy pals multiple nights a week at mics or shows. While I was missing doing comedy, my best friend, Sammi, was really missing watching comedy. So we decided to start co-producing a show during quarantine to help bridge the gap between comics who missed performing and audiences who missed laughing and seeing live comedy. Every Wednesday for 6 weeks, we had a Zoom comedy show called Stand-Up Stay Home, featuring some of our favourite comedians from all over the country and the world. Always ones to look on the bright side, we realized that the massive perk of a comedy show online was the ability to bring people together to share the “stage” who wouldn’t normally have the opportunity. We had comics from Detroit, Orland, Los Angeles, NYC, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Washington DC, and even Australia. Our comics had an insane range of credits, from opening for every big name in comedy to appearances on James Corden, Stephenn Colbert, and Conan O’Brien, to albums and specials. We were so proud of the group of comics who performed on our show. And we were especially proud to be the ones bringing such quality comedy to homes all over the world, every Wednesday at 8 PM Eastern, 5 PM Pacific. Sammi did all of the technical Zoom work and I hosted each week for 40 minutes of glorious comedy. There are few things we love more than a show that starts on time! (Sammi genuinely has to make an effort to be a bit late for a party so the hosts aren’t annoyed.) Also, knowing we were up against literally everything ever made AND every book waiting to be read on the bookshelves of our audeinces’ homes, we really made every effort to respect the time of the comedians and the viewers. Four years into my comedy career, this was my first time producing a comedy show! What a gift to get to be on the other side of things. I have even more appreciation for producers than ever before. BOY did I learn a lot. Each week, the production value of the show increased 10 fold. By week 4, we were sitting pretty before the show in a virtual green room with all of our comics. One of the best parts of comedy is getting to be around other comics and I’ve been missing that (and really every) aspect of comedy so much during this tme. Our show was able to bring together many of my fave comics — and introduce me to new faves — or camaraderie and laughter.

One of the shows happened to fall on April 29th, my birthday! We had such a fun birthday line up with some of my pals and I was very sweetly surprised by a pre-recorded roast at the end from my comedy pals in Pittsburgh and Seattle and my 3 big brothers! It was so funny and so lovely.

Now that the weather is nice and things are opening up (Woo! Phase 2!), we’re taking a wee break. We may be back in the future with more shows, but I think we could all use a wee rest Zoom. We were so touched each week by the number of comedy fans who tuned in each week and to the INSANE lineup of comics we had. We couldn’t believe the caliber of talent NOR the generosity of the audience. Thank you all so much for going on this incredible journey with us. We’ll see you soon! See the comics’ full bios at www.standupstayhome.com

Week 1: Helen Wildy (Seattle), Birungi Birungi (Seattle), Collin Chamberlin (NYC), Caitlin Peluffo (NYC)

Week 2: Steve Rogers (NYC), Wendy Wroblewski (DC), Jaques Barrett (Australia), Aaron Kleiber (Pittsburgh)

Week 3: Stephanie Nam (Seattle), Ray Zawodni (NYC), Liz Glazer (LA), Ashley Gutermuth (Seattle)

Week 4: Dwayne Duke (Cleveland), Mary Santora (Cleveland), Chris Alan (NYC) Joe Dombrowski (Seattle)

Week 5: Devin Siebold (Orlando), Dana Goldberg (LA), Tam White (Detroit), Richard Bowen (Seattle), Katie Barbaro (NYC)

Week 6: Dan Wickes (NYC), Liz Miele (NYC), Andrew Orolfo (LA), Ben Katzner (NYC), Rachel Green (NYC)