Lea DeLaria is an American comedian, actress, and jazz singer. She portrayed Carrie "Big Boo" Black on the Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black (2013–2019). She also starred in the Broadway productions POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive in 2022 and the 2000 revival of The Rocky Horror Show. She was the first openly gay comic to appear on American television in a 1993 appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show.
Kate Clinton is an American comedian specializing in political commentary from a gay/lesbian point of view.
Alternative comedy is a term coined in the 1980s for a style of comedy that makes a conscious break with the mainstream comedic style of an era. The phrase has had different connotations in different contexts: in the UK, it was used to describe content that was an "alternative" to the mainstream stand-up of the day which took place in working men's clubs, and was characterised by unoriginal gags often containing elements of sexism and racism. In other contexts, it is the nature of the form that is "alternative", avoiding reliance on a standardised structure of a sequence of jokes with punch lines. Patton Oswalt has defined it as "comedy where the audience has no pre-set expectations about the crowd, and vice versa. In comedy clubs, there tends to be a certain vibe—alternative comedy explores different types of material."
Elvira Kurt is a Canadian comedian, and was the host of the game show Spin Off. She hosted the entertainment satire/talk show PopCultured with Elvira Kurt, which began on The Comedy Network in Canada in 2005. That show's style was similar to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. It was cancelled due to poor ratings in early 2006. She is of Jewish Hungarian descent. She performed a 22 minute set on toothbrush advancement and family culture on the American show Comedy Central Presents 2nd season, May 30th, 1991.
Jason Stuart, also known by his real name Stuart Ted Greif, is an American actor and comedian. He first won notice on Star Search, where he lost to Martin Lawrence. He came out publicly in 1993 on the syndicated daytime talk show Geraldo, and has been called "the first openly gay stand-up comedian" by various media outlets.
Miss Coco Peru is the drag persona of American actor, comedian and drag performer Clinton Leupp, known for her role in the 1999 independent film Trick and for her series of live theater performances. Recognizable by her "trademark copper-toned flip hairdo", Peru also starred in Richard Day's Girls Will Be Girls (2003) and was one of six performers featured in the Logo original stand-up comedy series Wisecrack (2005). She has also appeared in a number of other supporting and guest-starring roles in film and television.
Jim David is an American stand-up comedian, actor and writer. He is originally from Asheville, North Carolina, and lives in New York City.
Stephen Kehinde Amos is a British comedian and television personality. A regular on the international comedy circuit, he is known for including his audience members during his shows. He began his career as a compere at the Big Fish comedy clubs in South London, and has been nominated for Chortle's Best Compere Award three times in 2004, 2007 and 2008.
Jade Esteban Estrada is an American singer, actor, stand-up comedian, journalist and human rights activist. Out Magazine called him "the first gay Latin star."
Tony Tripoli is an American actor, comedian and LGBT rights activist. He performs his stand-up comedy throughout the United States, and has produced, written and appeared on numerous TV series.
Richard O'Donnell is an American playwright, composer, lyricist, poet, actor, and stand-up comic. He has worked and lived in New York City and Chicago, where he has written and performed for the stage and television. O'Donnell co-wrote the ASCAP award-winning Off-Broadway musical comedy One & One, and Radio City Music Hall's Manhattan Showboat. He founded the New Age Vaudeville theatre company, the New Variety cabaret, the Black Pearl Cabaret, and St. John's Conservatory Theater. As a stand-up comic, he was the executive producer and host of the Fox, Chicago comedy variety television show R. Rated.
Bob Smith was an American comedian and author. Born in Buffalo, New York, Smith was the first openly gay comedian to appear on The Tonight Show and the first openly gay comedian to have his own HBO half-hour comedy special. Smith, along with fellow comedians Jaffe Cohen and Danny McWilliams, formed the comedy troupe Funny Gay Males in 1988.
Shawn Hollenbach is an American comedian, writer and actor, based in New York City. He worked at Comedy Central in the programming department. As a comic and actor he has performed around the country and throughout New York. He is an energetic and upbeat performer and self-deprecating humorist focusing on LGBT subjects and a "style that capitalizes on the myriad incidents and accidents that befall us all in the midst of our human existence". He currently works at Logo, Viacom's channel that appeals to the LGBT community and their allies as the social media manager for the channel and its most popular show, RuPaul's Drag Race.
We're Funny That Way began as an annual charity comedy festival in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1996. Launched in 1996 by Maggie Cassella, the festival featured stand-up and sketch comedy shows by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender comedians. It ran until 2012 when it took a five-year hiatus, returning in 2017. The festival has grown to a broader performance festival and now includes musicians, story-tellers, burlesque artists, plays, drag performances, generally following the genres associated with live cabaret.
Jonathan Wilson is a Canadian actor, comedian and playwright, who is best known for his 1996 play My Own Private Oshawa. The play, a semi-autobiographical comedy about growing up gay in Oshawa, Ontario, was also optioned by Sandra Faire's SFA Productions for production as a film, which won an award at the Columbus International Film & Video Festival in 2002 until being broadcast as a television film on CTV in 2005.
Funny Gay Males was an American comedy troupe in the 1980s and 1990s, consisting of comedians Bob Smith, Danny McWilliams and Jaffe Cohen.
Victor Robert DiBitetto is an American stand-up comedian, Internet personality and actor. He often refers to himself as "The Donkey of Comedy" or "The Working Class Zero". DiBitetto is known for his YouTube videos, most notably his "Bread and Milk" and "Who Wants Coffee" videos, and for portraying Gino Chizetti in the 2015 comedy film Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2.
The Marlborough Pub and Theatre is a historic venue, situated at 4 Princes Street, Brighton. It has been associated, since the 1970s, with the LGBT community. The Marlborough's small theatre presents drama, cabaret and music throughout the year, including during the Brighton Fringe Festival, LGBT History Month and Brighton Pride Arts Festival. The pub reopened in 2021 as 'The Actors'.
Monica Palacios is a Chicana lesbian American playwright and performer, specialising in Chicana, queer, feminist, and lesbian themes. She has charted the intersection of queer and Latina identities in Latinx communities, with their mutually marginalising impact. A trailblazer stand-up comedian in the 1980s and 1990s, Palacios is now better known for her work as an award winning playwright and activist. Her works are taught in many schools and colleges, where she has served frequently as a director of student theatre.
The Duplex, also known as The Duplex Piano Bar and Cabaret, is a historical gay bar, piano bar, and cabaret theater in the Greenwich Village neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City. The Duplex originally opened in 1951 on 55 Grove Street nearby in the same neighborhood, and moved to its current location at 61 Christopher Street in 1989.
