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VA Pridefest 2021 Postponed

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This morning brings a sad but necessary announcement; VA Pridefest, originally scheduled for Saturday, September 25 at Brown’s Island, will be postponed until 2022. The decision was not made lightly, but with COVID numbers once again on the rise due to the Delta variant, the organizers felt that it was the right thing to do.

COVID strikes again. Back in the spring, when vaccines were all the rage and numbers were falling rapidly, it felt like we were seeing a light at the end of the tunnel where the pandemic was concerned, and at that time, a lot of plans were made for the summer, the fall, and beyond — when, we assumed, COVID would be mostly behind us. But of course, like the meme says, there was our fall plans, and then there was the Delta variant.

The news out of VA Pride today is another strong indicator that we’re not out of the pandemic woods yet. After missing Pridefest 2020 due to COVID, everyone was excited to get back to Brown’s Island for the biggest LGBTQ Pride celebration in the state. Unfortunately, it is not to be; this morning, VA Pridefest organizers have announced that the 2021 Pridefest, scheduled for Saturday, September 25, will be postponed. They tentatively hope to reschedule for June 2022, in order to coincide with the national LGBTQ Pride Month celebration.

“After consulting with our many corporate sponsors, organizational partners, and volunteers, we have decided it is in the best interest of the health and safety of our community to postpone VA Pridefest 2021 until next year,” said James Millner — program director of Diversity Richmond, of which Virginia Pride is a part — in a statement. “The data available from the Virginia Department of Health shows that cases of COVID-19, positivity, and incidence rates are projected to increase through the end of September when our event was scheduled, and we want to be certain that we are doing our part to help mitigate the spread of the virus.” 

Diversity Richmond and VA Pride — which merged earlier this year — began planning for an in-person Pridefest in June, when things relating to the pandemic were still trending in the right direction, and had done quite a bit to ensure that 2021 Pridefest would be a truly great event, on par with some of the best of prior years.

“In a very short period of time, we were able to raise record amounts of money, secure phenomenal entertainment acts, and plan an event of which our community and the entire Richmond Region would have been proud,” Millner said in a statement. “Our preparation puts us on solid footing as we postpone the festival to 2022, when we hope to hold it in June as part of the national observation of LGBTQ Pride Month. This has long been a goal of ours, and this just may give us that opportunity.”

VA Pridefest’s organizers stressed that the decision to postpone was not made lightly, and was arrived at with the help of VA Pride’s sponsors, volunteers, and community partners. Black Pride RVA co-founder Luise “Cheezi” Farmer offered her organization’s support for the decision to postpone, saying, “Posponing Pridefest is the right thing to do under the circumstances. I know I speak not just for Black Pride RVA, but for other LGBTQ and allied organizations when I say that we are grateful to the volunteers and leadership of Virginia Pride for putting the health and safety of our community first.”

VA Pride hopes to be able to hold some smaller events in September that will have more limited attendance, and at which they can require masks and/or proof of vaccination. Still, losing the big VA Pridefest throwdown at Brown’s Island for another year is a big blow to Virginia’s LGBTQ community — and no one knows this better than the organizers of VA Pridefest.

“We know this is not the outcome that we, nor anyone in our community, had hoped or planned for,”Millner said. “But we are also firm in our conviction that is absolutely the right thing to do.”

Photo from VA Pridefest 2018 by Sara Wheeler

Richmond Comedy Gets A Pick-Me-Up

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At the height of the pandemic, when pretty much everyone needed a good laugh, Jack N’ Minor’s Pickup Comedy Show began bringing live standup to the RVA masses in a socially distanced outdoor environment. Gabe Santamaria spoke to the men behind the wheel of the only Richmond comedy show that takes place in the bed of a pickup truck.

In the midst of the 2020 pandemic, with no shows going on, live comedy went viral [no pun intended, I assume? -ed]. Zoom shows and Tik Tok were the closest things that comedians could do to get a laugh. It was awkward. And two Richmond comedians realized that, if they were going to perform for an audience anytime soon, they’d be forced to get creative.

With this reality spurring them on, Jack Parker and Will Minor (better known as Jack N’ Minor) wanted to find a way to perform live under the restrictions COVID had brought. They decided to take the punk rock approach: do-it-yourself, low-budget, using what they had. They made the bed of a pickup truck a stage, got an amp and a mic, and began performing outdoor shows around Richmond. With that, Jack N’ Minor’s Pickup Comedy Show was born. It has featured such local favorites as Sarah Ahmed, Nick Deez, and Winston Hodges, as well as drawing touring comedians to do a quick spot.

I got to sit down with the ringleaders of this DIY comedy show to talk about the evolution of the Richmond comedy scene, the origins of their pickup truck shows, and the journey they’ve been on with their new comedy venture — so far. Here’s our conversation:

Gabe: OK, so let’s start from the beginning. How long have y’all been doing stand-up?

Jack: Four years now. I started in Fredericksburg. There, I could only do two [open] mics every month before I got to Richmond, where I could really focus on it. So I would say three years taking it seriously.

Minor: I’m about three years in, myself.

Gabe: So have you seen Richmond comedy evolve since you’ve been doing it?

Minor: Oh my god, yes!

Jack: So much.

Minor: When we first showed up, just bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, we didn’t know anybody. We never even talked to each other.

Jack: Will and I thought we hated each other.

Minor: We were just so socially awkward. We didn’t know anybody or how the scene worked. We were just like [in a cracking adolescent voice], “Hi, I wanna sign up for the comedy show.” 

Jack: How could I not step on anybody’s toes and also get stage time? You’re so nervous starting off.

Minor: You never wanna come across as a douche or just like, “I’m coming into the comedy scene, I know what’s up, I’m Andrew Dice Clay.” I feel like a lot of people don’t want to be that way.

Gabe: So, how’d these pickup truck stand-up shows start?

Jack: Will got in a car wreck.

Minor: (laughs) It was COVID.

Jack: COVID? Will got in a horrendous car wreck!

Minor: It wasn’t that bad.

Jack: Your car was totaled! So, you ended up with a truck.

Minor: Insurance said it was totaled.

Jack: He got a pickup truck. And I was like, “You know, we could do pickup shows.” We were still in COVID. We didn’t have space to perform.

Will Minor performs in the pickup at Boulevard Burger and Brew.

Minor: It was the middle of the pandemic and we hadn’t done shows in a year. We had done Zoom mics and we had kept writing jokes, but it really wasn’t the same. I probably saw a post on Instagram for something in New York. I saw they were doing a show out of pickup truck, and I was like, “Why can’t we just do that here?”

Jack: We both kind of had the idea but never spoke it out loud. I got the first idea of doing pickup comedy when they were doing comedy off the loading dock at Buskey Cider. I had taken some friends out to go watch a show. It had started raining at the very beginning of the show.

Gabe: Oh boy.

Jack: And it was one of those things where… I think the best way I can put it: comedy out of spite. We stuck around and had a good time to spite the weather. We had fun out of a sheer sense of spite and resistance. We’re like, “No. You’re not gonna stop me from having a good time.”

Gabe: Spite is a healthy motivator.

Jack: It can be. That’s what was so amazing. Out of that spite [came] our first [show], which we did at Boulevard Burger and Brew.

Minor: It was so cold. It was seventy degrees the day before. And then of course it dropped down to forty the day of the show.

Jack: We started that one in March, and I had to call people to say, “Hey, would you guys like to be on the show?” Initially it was eight comics, and we only had an hour to get on. As we continued to build it, we got bigger and bigger crowds. We had to tell comics, “There’s a list now of people who want to get on.”

Minor: Yeah.

Jack: We’re getting headliners in. We have people coming from New York, from Washington.

Minor: We had a comic friend of ours drop in from South Florida who just wanted to do five minutes.

Jack: They heard we had a cool show, and we’re just like, “…I guess we do.”

Minor: Cool to see all these comedians hitting us up out of the blue, because there’s a show where they can perform and it’s safe and outside, and follows all the guidelines.

—

It was a pleasure talking with Jack and Will. You can follow their pickup truck shows by following Jack N’ Minor on Instagram and Facebook, and you can listen to their podcast, which also happens to be called Jack N’ Minor, on Spotify. Their pickup shows currently take place at Bingo Beer Co. every other Tuesday. Their next show is at Bingo on August 24th at 7pm with Nick Deez headlining and featuring Ray Kirby and Francesca Lyn. Jack and Will open the show, and then after the features there will be a short open mic that anyone can sign up for. Contact Jack N’ Minor to get on the list, and be sure to catch this in-your-face DIY comedy show for yourself. Support local.

Photos courtesy Jack N’ Minor

A Long-Awaited Return

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After over a year of limited operations, Richmond’s LGBTQ bars — and its LGBTQ community — finally got a taste of post-pandemic life, just in time for Pride month.

On the first Thursday night after Governor Northam lifted mask and capacity restrictions statewide, the crowd that gathered at Babe’s of Carytown, for a drag show featuring Godfrey’s performers, was electric.

“They missed us bad,” said Vicky Hester, who has worked at Babe’s for 36 years and been the sole owner for 21 years. “They’re very grateful that we’re back.”

At the door, in addition to asking for the usual five dollar cover charge and ID, the bouncer asked for proof of vaccination. Overwhelmingly, Hester said, people have been receptive to the request.

“The first night we opened, we posted that you had to have this vaccine,” said Hester. “Only one person came [that night] without a vaccine, and that was probably out 150 people.”

Babe’s closed for four months at the start of the pandemic, later re-opening at a limited capacity. That finally changed last month.

“It’s almost overwhelming, and it will never be normal again,” said Hester. “People have been locked in their houses for a year, and now they think they can do anything wherever and whenever they want. We have half the people that are really really good and really appreciate us being here, and then half the people that think they deserve to be here.”

Though people are returning to bars — with varying degrees of rowdiness — Babe’s isn’t out of the woods yet. Up until a month ago, the bar was down to six employees, compared to the upwards of 20 employees who worked there pre-pandemic. In an ordinary year, Hester said Babe’s would earn anywhere from $500,000 to $850,000. Last year, they made just $80,000. Vaccine mandates aside, the biggest change for the bar has been financial, Hester said.

“I spent my savings,” she said. “We used to do whatever we wanted to and now we have to watch every penny we spend.”

Rent at Babe’s Carytown location costs about $90,000 a year.

“I had to beg, borrow and steal to get that,” Hester said. “We did get a three or four month deferment, which I haven’t paid back yet, for the rent, because we just didn’t have it.”

Throughout a difficult year, Hester said she remained grateful for the CDC guidelines.

“Not that we enjoyed it at all, but I’m very glad, and my people are very glad, that there were mandates where people had to wear a mask. We really appreciated that, people not sharing their diseases with us. Most people bitched about it the whole time, but it was something we needed.”

Alvion Arnell Davenport, the entertainment director at Godfrey’s, talked about how good it felt to return to a sense of normalcy. Though Godfrey’s never closed, last month marked the first drag shows with no social distancing guidelines since the start of the pandemic.

“It was so amazing to be reunited and see people’s smiles again,” Davenport said, as the crowd screamed along to drag queen Chicki Parm’s performance of Olivia Rodrigo’s “good 4 u.” “It was so rewarding to see that so many people actually took care of themselves and made it through the pandemic, but it was even more rewarding to see our community back together during Pride month of all times, while we celebrate ourselves, our lives, and our love.”

He emphasized the essential community of gay bars.

“I would just like to tell people to continue to support the bars, because they are the meat and potatoes of this community,” he said.

Top Photo via Babe’s Of Carytown/Facebook

After ‘Overwhelming’ Year of Remote Learning, Students Welcome Return to Campus

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Last year’s move to campus closures, quarantines, and distance learning was necessary to minimize the spread of COVID, but had a negative effect on many college students. This year, they’re more than ready to head back to campus.

Devastated. Drained. Depressed. Those are just a few words college students used to describe the past 15 months since the pandemic hit. 

This past year has been a mixed bag of hybrid and online learning, but many college campuses in Virginia are completely reopening in the fall. Students had different reactions to online learning, but many are excited to transition back to in-person instruction.

Students said their mental health suffered during the two and a half semesters of online learning. Many said it was worse during the first semester when the pandemic hit. Jamareya Thomas, a fashion merchandising and marketing major at Virginia State University in Petersburg, said that her mental health declined as her coursework grew more difficult.

“It definitely went down some, especially when I started taking harder classes,” she said. “This semester has actually been pretty good on my mental health. Last semester it was terrible, but this semester I was a lot more calm and collected.” 

A survey of over 1,000 Virginia college students by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia found that 76% reported challenges to their mental health during the first months of the pandemic. Another survey of more than 2,000 students at Texas A&M University showed that 71% reported increased stress and anxiety levels. Only 43% said they were able to cope with this stress.

Amiya Brady, a nursing major at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, said she endured a lot more stress from virtual learning as opposed to in person.

“I was drained and tired because of the excessive workload,” she said. “We didn’t have as much work in person as we did online, so it was kind of overwhelming at times.”

Nyasia Dozier, a criminal justice major at VSU, said there are merits to both in-person and virtual learning, but she “had a hard time adjusting” to virtual learning. She said she was devastated when classes moved online last spring.

“I’m more of a hands-on learner, so I need to be in class learning versus at home,” Dozier said. “When I’m at home, I’ll be lazy and I forget about my work. I’m not nearly as focused now as I was on campus.”

VCU’s Monroe Park Campus. Photo by Noah Fleischman.

Julie Bernardez, a freshman at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, said virtual learning made the transition between high school and college more difficult.

“The hardest part is trying to figure out what’s OK and what’s not OK,” she said. “When classes are in person, you can raise your hand and go to the bathroom whenever you want, but people aren’t really taught online etiquette.”

Bernardez said tasks that were simple with in-person learning, such as contacting teachers or hearing the lecture, are now much harder.

“There’s a lot of issues that happen with online stuff that throws me off,” she said, “whether it’s trying to get a hold of teachers or Zoom technology, the video or the sound, isn’t working.”

Grana Ali, a biology major at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, stated in an email that while her mental health wasn’t affected too negatively, it was still difficult to adjust to a COVID-19 world.

“I was a bit unmotivated to do things and felt isolated,” she said. “It’s depressing seeing all the horrible things happening in the world around you, and it definitely takes a toll on a person mentally, but I feel like I’m doing pretty OK so far.”

Clinical depression increased 90% among college-aged young adults in the first few months of the pandemic, according to a recently published study. The students’ screen time more than doubled, socialization decreased by over half, and average steps taken declined from 10,000 to 4,600 per day.

Despite the struggles that virtual learning brings, students said that they have ways of boosting their mental health and motivation.

“Sitting in Monroe Park has helped a lot, just relaxing and breathing the fresh air,” Bernardez said. “I’ll go grab a smoothie and just sit on the bench with my phone put away.”

Other students take a break from school, but not from computer screens.

“I watch a quick 30 minute show, get a little TV time in, or even just play on my phone for a while to get a break from school,” Brady said.

Ali said Netflix is her go-to for entertainment, but she has also taken up reading more.

“I’ve really enjoyed it and used it as a way to escape from the realities of the world,” she said.

The isolation and struggles are why so many students anticipate returning to campus.

After Virginia Commonwealth University closed in March, Monroe Park campus was empty. Photo by Georgia Geen, Capital News Service

Many colleges and universities are still finalizing plans for the fall semester but have announced plans to be on campus with safety policies in place. A growing list of higher education institutions around the U.S. have announced a COVID-19 vaccine policy for students and employees, including some colleges in Virginia — though many of the state’s major colleges have not made a final determination.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday that vaccinated individuals don’t have to wear masks or social distance unless a law or regulation requires it.

Many college students are excited to return to campus in the fall, while others aren’t sure it’s the best course of action. Ali will likely return to campus.

“A lot of people have been getting vaccinated and abiding by the COVID safety rules,” Ali said. “I’ll most likely be returning to campus and as long as people are aware that COVID is still a risk and continue to do their part in stopping it from spreading.” 

Written by Hunter Britt, Capital News Service. Top Photo: VCU Monroe Park Campus, late spring 2020. Photo by Georgia Geen, Capital News Service.

The Amazon Trail: Notes From A Homebody

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In this month’s Amazon Trail, Lee Lynch talks about the end of quarantine, the fear of being around people again, and supporting local businesses in their time of need.

It’s finally here. The end of total lockdown. Am I ready? Absolutely not. I like my burrow. I don’t wanna play with others.

We’ve fashioned a comfortable little routine. Week days, work. Evenings, spend time alone together. Weekends, yard and house work and, sometimes, an adventure.

The adventures are mostly food and view related. They require us to travel along Highway 101 thirty to forty-five minutes south. Which is a mini-vacation in itself. People come here from all over the developed world to drive this highway. My sweetheart and I, we just buckle up and go, the little dog in her back seat safety perch and the cat at home, guarding the house from whatever intrusions he fears. Probably a bug. Talk about privileged lives. We ain’t got much but we’ve got it all.

Former neighbors gave us the idea. They liked to go to a certain restaurant, get takeout, drive two minutes to the ocean, and watch the waves while they ate. As it happens, that modest restaurant makes the best fish and chips on the coast. No soggy beer batter. No fancy coleslaw. No stingy portions.

We worried that this institution might be lost to the pandemic.

When the first COVID cash arrived, my sweetheart suggested we use some of it to help keep our small local businesses afloat. Wow. What a very pleasant patriotic practice. And it hasn’t all been food. Over the months we’ve helped keep America strong by shopping at Grandma’s Greenhouse, the feed stores, the locksmith down the street, a roofer, the hardware store — though that’s a franchise operated by a local. Of course, these happen to be the places we’ve always shopped, but now we could pat ourselves on the backs, all noble in our consumerism.

Ice cream had been a forbidden fruit for health reasons, but we couldn’t let the nearby ice cream palace or the iconic creamery in the next county suffer economic ruin, could we? Pounds for a purpose and a treat for the dog, who we are trying to convert to a pet who loves the car and travel and her safety seat. So far, ice cream isn’t enough of a bribe.

We weren’t hiding under a rock. We knew the pandemic was taking a terrible toll; the sheer numbers of deaths assured that. Multiply each death by a family, friends, work colleagues, perhaps students, clients, patients, the losses became staggering, and the former administration’s deceptive, money-grubbing, incompetent response was revealed as criminal.

COVID has forever changed our lives. We follow the guidelines and make our drop-in-the-bucket contributions and stay sane with our little routines.

Then we found Chubby’s. Is there a more effective method of funneling COVID cash into a rural county’s economy than by patronizing our food trucks? Chubby’s is a basic burger chuckwagon. The friendly pest control guy told us they made the best burgers he’d ever tasted.

Out came our second Economic Impact Payment. Chubby’s only accepts orders online. This was new to us, but through trial and error, we’ve indulged ourselves twice. Maybe the third time we’ll get the fried onions, onion rings, mustard-mayo-ketchup, cheese, and timing right. They only stock so many patties per day and when they’re out, they close, a horrid surprise after a fogbound drive when the ocean is mostly invisible.

The newest problem for these businesses is lack of employees. What’s with that? The pizza and grinders place we favor is pleading with customers to be kind to staff because they’re all working ten-hour days, fourteen days in a row. They’ve had to cut back on deliveries and close two days a week. The same with our fish and chips place. Is it continued fear of COVID? The unvaccinated? The unvaccinated and unmasked? It’s hard to admit to myself that I can’t go and apply. Even if they were desperate enough to hire someone with white hair, my body wouldn’t last an hour at restaurant pace.

But that’s not what I set out to say. It crept up on me — the beginning of the reopening of our county.

First there was my friend the Librarian who came to drop off a brilliant red daylily, and I was so excited to see her, I insisted she come inside. The first other than service people to do so since lockdown. Then there was my sweetheart’s friend of many years who appeared like an emissary from the Golden Crown Literary Society. We three actually rode in a car together and ate inside a restaurant. Two other firsts.

The Handydyke emailed to invite us to watch the annual Blessing of the Fleet — we’re a commercial fishing town — with her, the Pianist, and maybe some other friends, from their deck. Five of us showed up, unmasked, vaccinated. It was just like old times. The CDC said we’d be safe. And it felt wonderful, especially the hugs. I should have checked; is it safe to hug again?

How am I going to preserve our hermitage, when seeing friends is such a pleasure? I loved eating by the ocean with my sweetheart and our little dog Betty, who dislikes oceans as much as cars. We may have to leave her home and bring (gasp) two-legged friends.

Copyright Lee Lynch 2021. Photo courtesy Lee Lynch.

Man With A Baby: An Interview With Joe Larson

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Perhaps it’s not his fault, Joe is after all a second generation comedian. Much to his parent’s dismay at the age of twenty, Joe went into the family business. Straight away he was chosen College Comedian of the Year at the Las Vegas Comedy Festival and shortly after he made the move to New York City where he could be on stage every night.

Aside from the outrageous rent, rodents and 4AM wake up calls for his day job as a personal trainer, NYC proved to be exactly what Joe needed to grow as a comedian. Paying his dues at any club that would give him the mic, in just a short time he was working at some of the best rooms in the city including the famed Caroline’s On Broadway and Gotham Comedy Club. He was nominated “Best Up-And-Coming Comedian” at the NYC MAC Awards, was a finalist in both the prestigious Johnny Carson Great American Comedy Festival and Boston Comedy Festival and was part of the feature film Stand Up 360.

Just as comedy was taking off big time, Joe became a father. Unbeknownst to him this would not only take up every free second of his life but perhaps the biggest catalyst for his success. Becoming a dad gave Joe a new level of comfort in his role on stage and screen. Unconventional as always, Joe didn’t take on the traditional role of dad but rather he says he is simply a “man with a baby”.

I spoke with comedian Joe Larson this week. He has a new comedy special out, he’s a man with a baby, and he’s headlining Sandman Comedy Club this weekend. We spoke at 5:30 on a weekday. Here’s our conversation:

Gabe: You had a new special come out recently?

Joe: I had a special come out recently. A Dry Bar special. Which was a lot of fun. That was called Champion, named after my closer. Well, my closer at the time. No longer in my closer, but it was a really fun special. I shot it in Provo, Utah. So, it’s squeaky clean, but my shows aren’t always squeaky-clean. You know, I tend to go PG-13 to a soft R. So I don’t go raunchy ever, but we have a lot of fun.

Gabe: Did you record that before the pandemic?

Joe: Yeah, it was like February.

Gabe: What was that process like? I know a lot of comics came out with their specials over the past year, because it’s material sitting there and it’s already recorded.

Joe: You know, that’s one of those questions. You go like, ‘how long do you sit on it?’ Because there’s also things in it where it’s like, ‘this won’t be relevant if it comes out too late.’ I had some jokes about disease in New York City, and after COVID-19, all those jokes are completely different, and aren’t relevant anymore. The special had to come out. We dropped it pretty quickly, and it had great response. It’s got millions of views on online and it’s been great for me. I wasn’t able to capitalize it on the road. But as far as Pandora and satellite streams and things like that, it was a really great experience.

Gabe: Did you write your bio on your website or did someone else? It’s almost whimsical.

Joe: [laughs] It is whimsical. I’ve got a manager who, when I wrote one, she was like, ‘No, it’s too jokey.’ And then she toned it down, and I was like, ‘No, that’s cheesy.’ And then I turn it over again. I have a great manager who I love very much who’s very good at taking the BS that I produce and making it look palatable, or actually speak how it’s supposed to be spoken.

Gabe: So you refer to yourself as a “Man with a Baby”? Not quite a dad? Maybe more?

Joe: Absolutely, absolutely. Cause here’s the thing: ‘Dad’ is sort of like a connotation for ‘Mom Assistant,’ and I didn’t want to be that. I guess ‘Dad’ used to be the guy who made the money and didn’t hang out with the kids. And now it’s like “Mom Assistant.” Dad’s an idiot, but he helps out with whatever. And I was like, ‘No, no — I want to do dude shit with my kid.’ You know? I don’t want to be a dad. I want to be a man with a baby, so that we can do man stuff with the kids. Like, the other day, I rented a car for this gig because I had to leave my car at home with the family. And so I pull up with this little rental car. This tiny… it’s just a little go-kart of a choice, and my kids are like, “That’s a me-sized car.” And I was like, “You know what? It is. Get in. Let’s drive.” I sat them on my lap and they got to drive all around the neighborhood. A hundred percent illegal. Not a mom-approved activity whatsoever. A man-with-a-baby activity.

Gabe: That’s rad. Do your kids think you’re funny?

Joe: Yes. And they like the idea of comedy. So, they’re always trying to make jokes too. 

Gabe: That sounds fun.

Joe: Yeah, it’s super fun. I was working a cruise ship and my family came aboard. My daughter, at the end of the show, is like, ‘Can I tell a joke?’, and I was like, ‘You know what? why not?” And she walked on stage at the theater. There were a thousand people in there, and she told a joke and crushed it.

Gabe: Whaaaaaaa?!?!

Joe: Yeah, it was great. The joke was, she goes, “What did one math book say to the other math book? We’ve got problems.” 

Gabe: Nailed it! 

Joe: Just killed it. It was great. It was a proud Dad moment.

Gabe: Were you in tears? Could you come back on stage? Like, what happened there?

Joe: Oh, I was out there with her. You know, she got, like, a standing ovation and walked off, and I was like, ‘Okay, kid. It’s never getting better than that. Quit show business. Time to be an accountant.’

Gabe: Was that was that the last joke for the night? Did you have to pick up the rest of set, like the last ten minutes?

Joe: We closed it on that. That would have been terrible, if I had to try to try to jump off the most adorable kid in the world. Telling that joke. Come on. 

Gabe: [Laughing] Anything you can tell us about the show at Sandman Comedy?

Joe: I’ll say this: I am bringing with me with an opener. I chose her. I picked her out myself. I do some work with Anjelah Johnson, she does as well. And that’s how I met her. She is from Virginia Beach. She is one of the funniest women I’ve ever seen. And I’m so excited to have her work with me. I’m so excited she can open for me and I’m so excited to try to have to follow that. Because she is a beast. It’s going to be so much fun. Miss Kristen Sivills. She’s amazing. So it’s a fantastic show through and through, I mean, it’s two Headliners for the price of one.

—

Joe Larson was a lot of fun to talk to, very laid back and a really funny guy. You can catch him doing shows at Sandman Comedy club with his VA Beach feature, Kristen Sivills, all weekend at Sandman Comedy Club. Shows start at 7 and 9:30, Thursday through Saturday. Come an hour early for food and beverages. Tickets are available at Sandman Comedy Club.