Online Bay Area comedy can chase away blues of virus, fires

Tired of being tired because you’ve sheltered in place so long your un-dyed hair is almost its natural color? Hate that no clothes fit those unnatural extra 15 pounds COVID-19 added?

Try laughing at those ideas — and your other imperfections and neuroses. Or, better yet, try laughing at the variety of Bay Area-based comedy available online.

“Crazy Funny Asians” provides a different lineup each week. (Courtesy Funcheap)

You might begin, for example, with “Crazy Funny Asians.” The name of this live San Francisco-based show, organized by the Funcheap website (http://sf.funcheap.com), refers to the movie “Crazy Rich Asians” but has no other connection to it. It Zooms every Friday night at 8. 

Cambodian American comedian and producer K. Cheng hosts the “Crazy Funny Asians” comedy show every Friday night. (Courtesy kcheng.lol)

The show, hosted by K. Cheng but featuring a different lineup each week, lasts 45 minutes and is free (though donations are accepted). Find tickets here: https://sf.funcheap.com/city-guide/crazy-funny-asians-live-zoom-comedy-sf/

Different, too, is “Lockdown Comedy,” aimed at folks who like to watch standup while sitting on a couch. 

The new monthly series, which has drawn folks from as far as Kathmandu and Berlin, appears via Zoom from 7 to 8:15 p.m. the third Thursday of each month. 

Comedian Lisa Geduldig, producer of San Francisco’s “Kung Pao Kosher Comedy,” is putting on a monthly comedy show called “Lockdown Comedy” with her 89-year-old mother, Arline, from Florida. (Photo by Wanda Altidor)

It’s emceed by Lisa Geduldig, producer of San Francisco’s annual Christmastime extravaganza, “Kung Pao Kosher Comedy.” 

The next “Lockdown” on Thursday spotlights San Francisco’s Diane Amos and Geduldig’s 89-year-old mother. The cost, at LockdownComedyOctober15.Eventbrite.com, is $10-$20.

Think about it, says the host: Zooming eliminates the hassle for a parking spot.

Meanwhile, you might find some comedic relief from news of blazes and orange-colored skies while simultaneously benefiting the California Wildfire Relief Fund.

A live, family-friendly show that costs $12, “Cooper Cogburn Presents Comedy for Wildfire Relief,” will stream at 6 p.m. Saturday. 

“Cooper Cogburn Presents Comedy for Wildfire Relief” offers its audience a chance to giggle while supporting a charity. (Courtesy Cooper Cogburn Presents)

Among the evening’s comics will be Chris Tabish, adjunct professor at San Francisco Comedy College, and Ambitious M.A.E., an Oakland native who skewers her personal life. 

Access? https://www.eventbrite.com/e/comedy-for-wildfire-relief-with-jenna-kim-jones-tickets-122651559115

Also, you can donate directly to the relief fund here: www.pledgeling.com/ccfwildfirerelieffund.

Want another distraction from fires and viruses? Michael Patrick Gaffney’s one-man show may fill that bill by serving tasty tidbits about his being a high-end waiter to the stars and a professional actor. 

“The Oldest Living Cater Waiter” is a virtual 42nd Street Moon production. (Courtesy 42nd Street Moon) Another potential diversion skips Halloween and jumps

“The Oldest Living Cater Waiter” — a virtual production of 42nd Street Moon in San Francisco — showcases the “S-ence” of Gaffney’s characters with “just the right amount of sauciness, Shakespeare and a soupçon of self-discovery.”

“Waiter” runs 6 p.m. Thursdays-Sundays, through Oct. 25. Tickets are $20. Learn more at https://42ndstmoon.org/moonbeams/

Another potential diversion skips Halloween and jumps to Turkey Day.

“The Thanksgiving Play” is Larissa FastHorse’s ensemble satire about good intentions crashing into absurd assumptions. 

A scene from “The Thanksgiving Play,” put on by Left Edge Theatre in Santa Rosa, which starts livestreaming Nov. 6.

The comedy begins Nov. 6, live streamed from the Left Edge Theatre in Santa Rosa through Nov. 15, then on-demand Nov. 16-29. Get tickets, between $10 and $30, at https://let.simpletix.com/e/54465.

Finally, satirist-monologist Josh Kornbluth has penned a new show.

Like his previous solo outings, “Citizen Brain” is offbeat and looks at a serious subject through a cerebral clown’s lens: Can a neurotic storyteller who flunked every science class spark a science-based revolution of empathy?

Monologist/comedian Josh Kornbluth has written a new show, “Citizen Brain,” that opens Friday. (Courtesy Shotgun Players)

Kornbluth’s latest will play on a pay-what-you-can scale, 7 p.m. Fridays-Sundays through Nov. 8, and Thursday, Oct. 22, via Berkeley’s Shotgun Players (https://shotgunplayers.org/Online/default.asp).

When he’s not spending his Fridays performing for Shotgun Players, the writer/performer/provocateur is also a regular at San Francisco’s The Marsh, where he wears a different hat 7:30 p.m. Fridays hosting a free online “Bingo Night.” Info about the gig, on Zoom and YouTube, can be found at https://themarsh.org/bingo-night-with-josh-kornbluth/.

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