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Please Don’t Tell Anyone You Saw Me: Comedians on The Edge

Thursday, Jun 1, 2017 • 6:30–8pm

ADMISSION: $5 Members, $10 General

Like contemporary art, comedy disrupts our expectations of the status quo and engages with difficult topics, such as religion, race, sexuality, or politics—while making us laugh. The artists Cary Leibowitz and Roz Chast both use variants of traditional Jewish humor to disarm the viewer. Comedians Nato Green, Natasha Muse, Dhaya Lakshminarayanan, Joe Nguyen, and Dana Fleitman perform and discuss edgy comedy. 

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Nato Green
Nato Green

Nato Green was summed up more or less accurately by The East Bay Express as, “erudite and acerbic, a San Francisco-raised father, union organizer, gastronome, bibliophile, and political sparkplug.” Green is the creator of Iron Comic, the Iron Chef-spoofing comedy game show he sometimes co-hosts with Moshe Kasher. Nato has a regular column in the San Francisco Examiner, and his humor commentaries have appeared in VICE, Truthdig, Huffington Post, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, The Rumpus, and The Bold Italic. He also hosts FSFSF, a short spotlight on Bay Area comedy that airs every Tuesday during NPR's All Things Considered on 91.7FM KALW.

Natasha Muse

Natasha Muse is like the C3P0 of San Francisco comedy: a bunch of small bears once mistook her for a golden god but in reality she’s a bumbling robot (as well as a mom, a transsexual, and a firm agnostic). The SF Weekly once declared her a "Comedian to Watch" in 2014, and in 2016 they upgraded her to an "Artist to Watch." Natasha features at the SF Punchline and Cobb’s Comedy Club, and has worked with such comedy luminaries as Maria Bamford, Roseanne Barr, Janeane Garofalo, Wyatt Cenac, and God. Natasha’s comedy is so good, it’s not even funny.

Dhaya Lakshminarayanan

Dhaya Lakshminarayanan was named one of the “16 Bay Area performers to watch in 2016” by the SF Weekly. The San Francisco Bay Guardian named her Best Comedian 2013 in the “Best of the Bay” Readers’ Poll. Comedy Central Asia crowned her Grand Prize Winner of “The Ultimate Comedy Challenge” filmed in Singapore.

Her list of credits includes the Bridgetown Comedy Festival (Portland, OR), San Francisco Sketchfest, the Boston Comedy Festival (semifinalist), the Limestone Comedy Festival (Bloomington, IN) and Laugh Your Asheville Off (Asheville, NC). She has opened/featured for or worked with the following: Janeane Garofalo, Marc Maron, Greg Behrendt, Jello Biafra, Dick Gregory, Anthony Jeselnik, Maz Jobrani, and Greg Proops. Dhaya introduced former Vice President Al Gore at an event. He then laughed onstage at her joke, so technically she once opened for Al Gore.

Dhaya is also a TV host and storyteller. She hosted the premier year of the Emmy award-winning series High School Quiz Show on PBS’s WGBH. She is a frequent comedic storyteller on NPR’s Snap Judgment and has appeared live in Austin on The Risk podcast. She is currently the host of San Francisco’s monthly Moth StorySLAM after winning a Moth StorySLAM and competing in the GrandSLAM at the Castro Theater (capacity 1400). ON24 awarded her the grand prize for “Best Travel Disaster Story.”

She is a solo performer, and her first play, Nerd Nation, was funded in parts by The Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center of San Francisco and support from DIVAfest, which supports new and developing works by female playwrights. Her workshop run in San Francisco sold out.

The Boston Globe, The Bay Guardian, and The San Jose Mercury News have all run profiles about her.

Prior to funny and show business Dhaya was a venture capitalist, management consultant, and two-time MIT graduate. She is a favorite at corporate events, panels, CEO conferences, and company-wide programs. You can indeed call her a nerd. 

Joe Nguyen

Subtle but sharp, laid-back yet engaging, Joe Nguyen is the smart slacker beloved by audiences for his easygoing delivery and well-written jokes. Raised in Georgia by immigrants of Vietnamese and Jewish descent, Joe was destined to become a stand-up comedian. His unique perspective and likeable stage presence have made him a favorite at clubs, colleges, niche shows and private events throughout the country. Joe is a regular at the Punch Line and Cobb’s in San Francisco. He has been featured on the Kung Pao Kosher Comedy show and currently tours with You’re Funny But You Don’t Look Jewish.

Dana Fleitman

Dana Fleitman is a Washington, D.C. comedienne who brings laughter to the joyless masses of our nation’s capital through her imaginative over-analysis of everyday life. Clever and sarcastic, Dana will merrily pontificate on groundbreaking and original topics like her cat, dating and eating. Dana comes from an activist and social justice background and is excited to lend her voice to less important issues. She has performed at the DC Improv, What a Joke Fest, Arch City Comedy Festival and She Devil Comedy Festival.

Image Credit

Cary Leibowitz, Victor Klemperer (Bear Witness) yellow (2016). Latex paint on wood panel, 51 x 60 in. (130 x 152 cm). Photo by Gravity Goldberg. Nato Green by Red Scott; Dhaya Lakshminarayanan photo by Shekhar Patkar; Dana Fleitman photo by Michael Lurry.