New Featured Charity: Ukraine Refugees

I am pleased to announce that we raised quite a heafty sum of money for our previous featured charity:  Innocence Project.  That sum will be doubled when we submit the donations to the local chapter at LMU.

Our new featured cause is raising money for Ukrainian refugees.  I want to be clear.  This is not politics.  This is people.  We are raising money to help people who have been displaced, forced to flee their homes in an attempt to find some semblance of safety, having to cross the borders into neighboring countries because of an unwarranted and awful invasion.  Even after the war ends, these people don’t even know if they will have a home to go back to.

We appreciate the difficult times we are living in.  Inflation is widespread.  A tank of gas can run $100.  If you are overwhelmed with financial strains, of course, you should not donate.  You can’t take care of someone else till you first take care of yourself.

If, however, you are in a position to share, and feel motivated to do so, our monthly show will have its donation jar out, and any money collected will be doubled when submitted to the charity.  That means, if you put in a few dollars, Serving Up Comedy will match it dollar for dollar, so your contribution counts TWICE AS MUCH!

May you know many moments of levity, if not outright joy.  And we’ll see you at Serving Up Comedy.

 

 

 

 

 

Our 2021 Season Kicks Off!

Hello My Wonderful Readers,

Serving Up Comedy is back and on a new night.  Beginning Sept. 14, 2021, and every 2nd Tuesday of each month thereafter, Serving Up Comedy is hosting its monthly shows again.  Start time is 7pm and goes to 8:30pm followed by a half-hour of open mic.  Admission is free, and there is no two-item minimum, though we do encourage you to enjoy food and drinks served by the award-winning The Warehouse Restuarant (4499 Admiralty Way, Marina del Rey).  Happy hour drinks and appetizer specials end at 7pm, so get those orders in before the show starts.

We are so pleased to be back and ready to serve some standup in a time when we need a reason to laugh.  A BIG reason to laugh!  Come celebrate life with mirth and comedy as delivered by talent as seen on The Tonight Show, Conan, Ferguson, Kimmel, Comedy Central, MTV, Comedy Union, BET and more.

Mark your calendars!  The second Tuesday of each month.  Tell a friend.  Laughter should be shared with someone.

Our featured charity will continue to be The Innocence Project, as that was the charity we had left off with just before the pandemic hit.

Serving Up Comedy in the Pandemic

Normally, I would be writing a post about our new standup comedy season for 2021.  But with the Covid-19 virus as rampant as ever (I write this January 31, 2021), it may be some time before Serving Up Comedy returns to The Warehouse for its monthly show.  Our debut show would have been the third week of February, but that is not going to happen.

I encourage everyone to stay positive but test negative, find humor in life wherever you can, share your goodness and glee with someone else, and I look forward to posting again when we are starting a new season of comedy.  Our featured charity will remain the Innocence Project, as we only had two shows in 2020.

Thank you and group hug.

2020 Season Kicks Off w/ New Charity: Innocence Project

The Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck at Cardozo School of Law.  Its mission:  to free the staggering number of innocent people who remain incarcerated, exonerating the wrongly convicted through DNA testing, and to bring reform to the system responsible for their unjust imprisonment to prevent future injustices.

Their full-time staff attorneys and Cardozo clinic students provide direct representation or critical assistance, their intake and evaluation staff conducting extensive research into each case to determine whether DNA testing could be conducted to prove innocence.

Studies have estimated that between 2.3% and 5% of all prisoners in the U.S. are innocent (for context, if just 1% of all prisoners are innocent, that would mean that more than 20,000 innocent people are in prison).

The Innocence Project is a founding member of the Innocence Network, an affiliation of independent organizations working to overturn wrongful convictions and improve the criminal justice system.

Money collected from Serving Up Comedy will go to the local affiliate, Loyola Law School Project for the Innocent (LPI).

More can be learned at www.innocenceproject.org

Last Show of Season Aug. 9th

Hello My Fellow Comedy Clansmen!

Thursday, Aug. 9th, marks our last show for the year 2018.  The Warehouse emphasizes football from September till the Superbowl on the second Sunday of February.  But we will be back on Thursday, Feb. 21st, and every second Thursday thereafter with new shows and a new featured charity.

Even though our monthly show at The Warehouse is on hiatus, we still have our weekly workshop on Saturdays at Melody Bar and Grill at 2pm.  Read more about it on the website.

Those of us who make up Serving Up Comedy want to thank everyone who came out to see our shows on 2018.  We had a great year in attendance, and because of your kind hearts, we did pretty well bringing in a few dollars to give to our featured charity.  Serving Up Comedy will match dollar for dollar, and every dollar donated (100%) goes to the cause.  Two hundred percent, actually, because it’s doubled.  Spread the laughter; spread the love.

Come out to our last show, so that we may look you in the eyes and say, “Till we see you again.”

New Season in 2018 Begins and More!

This is not fake news.

Mark your calendars.  Thursday, Feb. 15th, is our first show of 2018!  Serving Up Comedy is back, offering a hilarious evening of booked comedians, followed by open mic for the audience to participate if they so choose.  As always, the show is free, and there is no two-item minimum.  The show goes from 7pm to 9pm.  We will, of course, continue to bring attention to charities.

Our debut charity for this year is First Responders.  California saw torrential fires in both hemispheres.  Then in Southern California we had the floods only months thereafter.  In every instance, fire, rescue, paramedics, police were warning us, helping us, saving us.  Now it’s their turn.  For every dollar donated to our charity, Serving Up Comedy will match it.  So, $400 becomes $800.  I want to emphasize, our shows are for entertainment.  We want to provide an evening of laughter with standup comedy free of charge.  The comedians performing do so without receiving compensation.  They agree to perform for the love of the craft and the cause we highlight.  If, in the spirit of having a good time, and you want to share that goodness you’re feeling, drop what you want into our donation box.  Every dollar makes a world of difference.

Lastly, a change in our venue.  This year, The Warehouse has decided to explore additional avenues of entertainment.  As such, after our first show, Feb. 15th, Serving Up Comedy will only have one show each month on the 2nd Thursday:  March 8th, April 12th, May 10th, June 14th, July 12th, Aug. 9th.  So mark those dates on your calendar!  A new lineup each month with top comedians and headliners from all over the country, as seen on TV.  Bring a friend.  Laughter should be shared.  Come share some with us.  Happy Hour till 7pm.  Happier Hour follows.  Dinner available in the lounge, as well.

Featured Charity for August: Dream Catcher of Los Angeles

We thank all the donations may in the month of July from our patrons who have been enjoying our standup comedy, but this new month brings on a new cause, and that charity is Dream Catcher of Los Angeles.  Like other featured charities that involve animals as therapy for people, so, too, is Dream Catcher, involving children and adults and horses.

With headquarters located in Long Beach, Dream Catcher is a Certified Center Member of PATH International (Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship), offering equine assisted activities and therapies.  Dream Catcher’s mission is to improve the lives of children, adults and veterans with cognitive, physical and emotional disabilities through the benefits of therapeutic horseback riding and other equine-assisted activities, while serving the therapeutic riding profession through training and education.

Serving Up Comedy supports the efforts of Dream Catcher and asks that you support their noble cause when attending any of our free comedy shows during the month of August.  To learn more about Dream Catcher, visit their website at www.dreamcatcher.com.

July’s Featured Charity and One-Year Anniversary!

We are having our one-year anniversary Thursday, July 13th, but our new featured charity, Boys and Girls Club of America, starts July 6th and goes for the whole month.

Every day, 11.3 million kids and teens leave school with no place to go.  The Boys and Girls Club of America provides a safe place to learn, play and grow through enriching programs, experiences and activities via supportive and caring mentors.  97% of Club teens are expected to graduate from high school and 88% are expected to complete some kind of post-secondary education.  74% of Club youth volunteer in their own community at least once a year.  Serving Up Comedy is featuring this cause as the charity for the month of July.  To learn more about them, visit www.bgca.org

Come out and enjoy some terrific standup comedy shows, and if so inclined, give a few dollars to the cause.

Many thanks.

Thank You, Everyone! We’re Having a Rockin’ Year!

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to any of our monthly featured charities.  Our last charity, Heifer International, brought in the dollars, and Serving Up Comedy is going to match dollar for dollar all that has been donated, before delivering it to the charity.  The generous giving that you make weekly deserves to be doubled.

Continue to come to our weekly shows on Thursdays at 7pm, and if you feel so inclined, continue to drop a little in the donation box.  A little goes a long way, especially when it’s twice as much.

June’s Featured Charity: Heifer International

Imagine delivering unto an impoverished village a cow that can provide milk daily, plow in the field, give birth to another cow that in turn will provide milk and continue to pay it forward.  It’s a lot like the “Teach a man to fish” philosophy.  Imagine a chicken, capable of laying 200 eggs a year, feeding a family.  That is what Heifer International is all about.

Heifer International empowers families to turn hunger and poverty into hope and prosperity.  “Our animals provide partners with both food and reliable income, as agricultural products such as milk, eggs and honey can be traded or sold at markets.” When many families gain this new sustainable income, it brings new opportunities for building schools, creating agricultural cooperatives, forming community savings and funding small businesses.

Serving Up Comedy supports this charity and asks that you consider making a contribution while enjoying our weekly shows at The Warehouse on Thursdays at 7pm.  To learn more about this charity, go to www.heifer.org.