Since 2002, The Gay Mafia has given over 230 performances and performed sketch and improv comedy in venues across the country, including The LA Convention Center, Highways Performance Space, The Renberg Theater, The Tamarind Theater, The Ice House,and The Second City Theater.
The Mafia defied censorship at Club 66 by performing a banned sketch to huge audience support. They have performed private gigs for gay organizations such as Great Outdoors Los Angeles, Women On A Roll, Transgender Unity, and Out at Warner Brothers.
They have appeared on Harrison On The Edge, IMRU, The John McMullen and The Frank DeCaro national radio talk shows (on Sirius Satellite Radio), QTV’s Morning Brunch Show, and Margaret Cho’s Sensuous Woman Show.
Past shows have included: A Gay Mafia Christmas, Experimenting with The Gay Mafia, The Gay Mafia: Not the Marrying Kind, The Gay Mafia: Stripped Bare!, and The Gay Mafia Brokeback Mountain Show.
In January 2005, The Gay Mafia hosted The First Annual Gay Mafia Comedy Competition to sold-out audiences.
July 28-31 2005, The Gay Mafia hosted the First Queer Comedy Festival in America, Outlaugh! 2005. Featured Artist was Lea DeLaria. Outlaugh! 2005 and The Gay Mafia were chosen as LA Weekly’s Comedy Pick of the Week,The Advocate’s Hot Pick , and LA Alternative Press’ Featured Pick of the Week.
The resulting film, Outlaugh! screened in July, 2006 as part of the 2006 Outfest Film Festival! Outlaugh! the movie has been screened at Fresno’s Reel Pride Film Festival and Austin, TX’s Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, with showings in other national festivals, and internationally. Wolfe Video released Outlaugh! on DVD in 07.
The Gay Mafia appeared frequently at The Grounds in West Hollywood. Margaret Cho and many other stand-up comics performed with us. Kurt Hall and Diana Yanez of the Gay Mafia toured with Margaret Cho, performing as Lisp and Havana, Margaret’s opening act.
The 2nd Annual Gay Mafia Comedy Competition was held in early fall 2006 to sold out audiences.
October 5, 6, & 7, 2006 The Gay Mafia again hosted Outlaugh, America’s first and continuing Queer Comedy Festival. Portions of Outlaugh 2006 are being broadcast on MTV’s LOGO Network, as "The Outlaugh Festival on Wisecrack." The Gay Mafia appear in episodes 3,5, and 8.
The 3rd Annual Gay Mafia Comedy Competition was held at Club Tangier in August 07, and again proved to be an audience winner!
The Gay Mafia most recently appeared at Benvenuto in Weho and Tangier in Los Feliz, The Lounge theater in Weho, and the ArtExplosion Festival in Florida. More to come!
Website
thegaymafia.net
Members
Starr Ahrens, Alex Garner, Kurt Hall, Nancy Kissam, Mark Rakow, Mike Player, Allie Rivenbark, Diana Yanez
Films
Outlaugh! (The Concert Film of Outlaugh! 2005) screened at LA’s Outfest in July 2006, Fresno’s Reel Pride in Sept 06, and in Austin’s Gay/Lesbian Film Festival in Oct. 06. Also, in Tampa FL, Hartford CT, New York, Montana, New Zealand, Australia, and Israel.
THE GAY MAFIA's Interests
General
SCHOOLS:
Cupertino High School, Strasberg Theatre Institute, Warner Brothers Comedy Writers Workshop
AFFILIATIONS:
www.thegaymafia.net, The Gay Mafia, Los Angeles Second Annual Improv Comedy Festival, Shock of the Funny
, OTF, Out at WB
HOBBIES:
Conquest of the Universe, Comedy, gays, lesbians, secure straight people, improv comedy, sketch comedy, gay los angeles, lesbian los angeles, west hollywood, hollywood
Television
Judge Judy, The Daily Show, Battlestar Galactica (on sci fi), Bottom (especially the ferris wheel episode, "Hole"), Little Britain, Lost, The Outlaugh Festival on Wisecrack
Books
City of Night by John Rechy, The Velvet Rage by Alan Downs, Dude Where's My Country? by Michael Moore, Martin Eden by Jack London, The Well of Lonliness by Radclyffe Hall, Why You Should Give A Damn About Gay Marriage by Davina Kotulski, Created Equal: Why Gay Rights Matter to America by Michael Nava & Robert Dawidoff , Making Gay History by Eric Marcus, Lost Illusions by Balzac, Two Years Before The Mast by Richard Henry Dana, Confessions of an Opium Eater by Thomas DeQuincey, early mystery novels by Joseph Hansen, Skin Tight by Carl Hiaasen, The Darkest Child by Delores Phillips, The Lives of the Great Composers by Harold C. Schonberg, Riding the Iron Rooster by Paul Theroux, Tao Zero by Poul Andersen, Evolution by Stephen Baxter, Madame Bovary by Flaubert
We are an IMPROV/SKETCH COMEDY group performing and based in Los Angeles.
GAY MAFIA IMPROV COMEDY DEMO REEL BELOW! (8:20)
BOOK US - Our shows can feature 4 performers or more - can be all-improv or all-sketch, or a combination. Shows can run 15 min. - 90 min. and can be tailor-made to create a unique evening for many different audiences! FOR MORE BOOKING INFO CLICK HERE
"My Puss" video (above) by Margaret Cho/Diana Yanez and members of The Gay Mafia
Our dear Vivian Marie is the one with the baseball bat :-)
Look out America, she's our next star!
Comedy Pick of the Week - La Weekly
Hot Pick - The Advocate
"The Gay Mafia is to homos what SNL is for heteros... FUNNY! FUNNY! FUNNY! Just go!"
--Suzanne Westenhoefer Comedienne - HBO, Politically Incorrect
"The funniest sketch and improv comedy I have seen in a long time." --Kai Bisby - IN Los Angeles Magazine.
MESSIN' AROUND WITH GAY MARRIAGE...
in an Episode of the Sketch Serial "Sergio's Place" (below)
We did 34 episodes total, a new one each week within
the regular Gay Mafia shows. This one is 18. We did
this at Club 66 in Hollywood where 3 weeks and 3 episodes
later we were thrown out for proceeding with the marriage
of the Navy Seals. (7:30)
..
Who I'd like to meet: People that enjoy gay and lesbian, improv/sketch comedy or just plain COMEDY.
People who have astounding eccentric laughs.
Cher. Rik Mayall. Matthew McConaughey (shirtless), Lucy Lawless, Dame Edna, Mary Cheney, Cheetah, that guy that played Boone on "Lost" who they killed off! :-) BTW if you saw the 3/28/07 Lost, there was a flashback where that annoying Shannon told Boone to stop flirting with that hot whats-his-face with the accent at the airport! Ha!
If you are an ad for a credit card or some "earn 500 bucks easy" bullshit, or for some equally unctious corporate product, posing as a "friend" comment...well, please go cyber f**k yourself! The United States has corporate commercials coming out its ass as it is. The hand grenades we heave in Iraq probably have space available and sold on them that say: "Coca Cola is a blast!"
This is different than creative artists or cool queer orgs that post on our comments. We support that 100%
Thanks for the add! Have you registered for IDKEX yet? What are you waiting for? Go to http://www. idkex. com/registration. html to register! Classes will sell out and tickets will be gone - so register today! See you, with your spirit gum or fishnets, at the party in October!
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