The holiday of Purim is full of sheroes. Join us for a night of comedy celebrating women and roasting cancelled men— from within the story of Purim to pop culture.
We’re going to “boo” toxic masculinity and all that comes with it with New York’s best comedians including Emmy Blotnick, Ophira Eisenberg, Alison Leiby, and Jess Salomon, and our Ha"MAN" of the evening, Josh Gondleman.
All proceeds go towards funding Housing Works' mission to fight AIDS and homelessness in New York City.
Josh Gondelman is a writer and comedian who incubated in Boston before moving to New York City, where he currently lives and works as a writer and producer for Desus and Mero on Showtime. Previously, he spent five years at Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, first as a web producer and then as a staff writer. Onstage, Josh charms audiences using his good-natured storytelling and cracks them up with his sharp, pointy wit. He takes topics from surprise parties to his experience teaching preschool and makes them all equally hilarious. In 2016, he made his late night standup debut on Conan (TBS), and he recently made his network tv debut on Late Night With Seth Meyers (NBC). Josh’s newest comedy album Physical Whisper debuted in March of 2016 at #1 on the iTunes comedy charts (as well as #4 on the Billboard comedy chart) and stayed there for…well…longer than he expected, honestly.
Ophira Eisenberg is the host of NPR's Ask Me Another.
A familiar face in the comedy world, Eisenberg moved to New York in 2001 from Canada and performs stand-up regularly at comedy clubs in the city as well as headlines across the United States, Canada and Europe. She tours as a host and storyteller with The Moth and is featured on The Moth Radio Hour and podcast.
Selected as one of New York Magazine's "Top 10 Comics that Funny People Find Funny," and featured in the New York Times as a skilled comedian and storyteller with a "bleakly stylish" sense of humor, Ophira has appeared on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Comedy Central, The Today Show, VH-1 and more.
Her debut memoir, Screw Everyone: Sleeping My Way to Monogamy, was recently optioned by Zucker Productions for a feature film.
Emmy Blotnick is a stand-up comedian and writer based out of New York.
She has appeared on CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, CONAN, and in her own half hour special on Comedy Central.
Currently she is a staff writer for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Previously she was head writer for Comedy Central’s The President Show, with other writing credits including Comedy Central’s Not Safe with Nikki Glaser and @midnight.
Emmy was highlighted as one of Comedy Central’s Comics to Watch and a "New Face" at Just For Laughs in Montreal.
Alison Leiby is a stand-up comic and writer in New York. She performs all over the city and has been a featured performer at the Bridgetown Comedy Festival. In addition to co-authoring two parody ebooks, her writing has appeared in McSweeney's, Cosmopolitan, and VICE. She produces and hosts the monthly comedy-storytelling show It's a Long Story.
Jess Salomon is a Canadian comedian now based in New York. She was a 2017 StandUp NBC Finalist and had her stand up featured on SiriusXM’s “Raw Dog”. She’s done lots of cool festivals including Just for Laughs, the Winnipeg Comedy Festival, the Laughing Skull Festival, San Francisco Sketchfest, and she recently taped her debut album at the 2018 New York Comedy Festival with 800 Pound Gorilla.
Jess has written for the award-winning sketch comedy show “Baroness Von Sketch” (IFC/CBC) and her comedy has aired on television in Canada on the CBC and radio shows like SiriusXM’s “Canada Laughs” and CBC’s “LOL”.
Jess is the regular host of “Dirty Laundry” at UCB (Hell’s Kitchen) Monday nights at 11pm. You can also catch her co-hosting The Lesbian Agenda at Union Hall in Brooklyn. She also performs as part of the comedy duo, The El-Salomon’s, with her wife Eman El-Husseini (@TheElSalomons).
Fun fact: before comedy Jess used to be a U.N. war crimes lawyer. The jury is still out on whether this was a good move.
Through our advocacy offices in New York City, Albany, Washington D.C., Mississippi, Haiti and Puerto Rico, Housing Works fights for funding and legislation to ensure that all people living with HIV/AIDS have access to quality housing, healthcare, HIV prevention information and other life-sustaining services, as well as legal protections from stigma and discrimination. We are a grassroots organization committed to the use of non-violent civil disobedience in order to further our mission.