Laughter feels good. The pleasure is fleeting but comprehensive, like an ACA gold plan: when we’re laughing, it feels like we’re getting what we need—physically, emotionally, socially. It’s a sudden utopia, our laughter. But all that glitters is not an ACA gold plan, and this reading investigates laughter’s dim underbelly. Dark comedy. Mean camp. Funny fear. Bellicose absurdity. Sad satire and rude farce. Extreme, very silly negativity. The tendentious joke & the bitter laugh. Despite our pleasure, comedy threatens to also extract its pound of pain, and this reading explores the use value—aesthetic, political, social, and somatic—of a queerly agonistic approach to fun-making. Performers at this event will pay respects to the butt, hew strange pathways to comedy’s dim underbelly, and read from dark-comedic works in progress.

Performers

Megan Milks

Amanda-Faye Jimenez

Charlie Jane Anders

Ryka Aoki