Imaniman by ire'ne lara silva

Author:ire'ne lara silva
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aunt Lute Books

Comedy Curanderismo

Monica Palacios

Walking on stage was no problem. I could handle that. It was facing the audience, strangers who I knew were homophobic, racist, and sexist based on how much they laughed at the comic ahead of me who trashed queers, women, and Latinos. I didn’t want to be at these clubs that promoted hate as an art form, but I needed stage time to work out my new profession as a comic in the summer of 1982 in San Francisco.

Here I was in the gayest city in the world, but these mainstream clubs were not welcoming to LGBTQ people. Yes, I was an out lesbian but I never did queer material at straight clubs because I never felt safe. Homophobia was rampant and AIDS exacerbated this fear and hate of queer folks. At the clubs you could count on straight male comics doing AIDS jokes—two words that should never go together.

I happened to pick up the gay newspaper Bay Area Reporter where I found an ad promoting “Gay Comedy Open Mic Night” at The Valencia Rose Cabaret 766, Valencia Street in The Mission. I immediately thought: These are my peeps. This is my place. I must go here and perform. But then I thought: If I perform here, I’m going to be known as a lesbian comedian and that could ruin my career. As if I had a career! I had only performed stand-up comedy a few times. But being in the closet was what one did to survive in the ’80s, especially in the entertainment industry. I thought about going and not going to the Valencia Rose for one long week and then concluded: fuck it—I’m a badass Chicana dyke!

I walked into the Valencia Rose with nervous confidence and was greeted by the MCs Tom Ammiano and Carol Roberts. Both were very nice and Tom gave me the rules: “No homophobic, racist, sexist, fat, or disabled jokes.” Sounded good to me.

I did the same set I had been doing at the straight clubs but this time I was a full blown jota. I was ridiculous, bold, sexy, kooky, and proudly out! It felt incredibly empowering to be my whole self. The audience was loving my material—they were loving me! These LGBTQ people were in hysterics and when I finished, they burst out in thunderous applause. I had just experienced my first spiritual group hug.

After my set, all the comics came up to me with praise. I’m not going to lie, being the highlight of the night was a fierce turn on. At this sacred queer space I was able to be my self 100%. I didn’t have to hide my dyke within as I did a week earlier when I performed at the Punchline, where I felt super unsafe and in a nervous state of mind I said into the microphone, “My boyfriend and I…,” I felt sick for days. The Valencia Rose was my new casa de queers.

The Rose allowed me to strengthen my comedy muscle. I was building a following.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.