Comedian Fundraises For Charitable Causes At Gotham Comedy Club
Updated: 10/08/2012 05:30 AM
By: Stephanie Simon
Comedian Alyse Kenny organizes and hosts funny fundraisers at Gotham Comedy Club that help charitable causes across the city. NY1's Stephanie Simon filed the following report.
Have you heard the one about the blonde who walks into a room and raises awareness about Endometriosis? Wait, is that funny?
Comedian Alyse Kenny organizes monthly charity comedy nights here at Gotham Comedy Club. She says tough topics are a natural for comedians.
"It’s kind of our job as comedians to kind of find the humor in things that might be painful or disappointing in life," she says. "I mean, those are like the golden nuggets of comedy often times."
With a changing lineup of talent over the last six months, her events have raised awareness and thousands of dollars for a slew of causes, including The Endometriosis Foundation of America, co-founded by TV personality Padma Lakshmi.
"I suffered from endometriosis for years and I didn’t know I had it," Lakshmi says. "If you know you have it in your twenties, you can pretty much manage it and treat it so that you lead a normal life. I think I just didn’t want other women to go through what I went through."
In the end, Padma left the joke-telling to the pros, not that we can share too many punch lines.
I was concerned about being the punch line but Kenny reassured me she wouldn't.
"Only if you sit in the front row. Then you’re fair game," Kenny joked. "But no, we’re all about just having fun and we want to be on NY1 again, definitely, Stephanie. So I’m definitely not making any jokes about you guys."
The event was sold out but don’t worry, the joke's not on you. "It's a Charity Thing" happens monthly.
For more details, go to www.alysekenny.com and www.gothamcomedyclub.com.
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