KICKSTARTER

Friends,

If you're in LA on Monday, April 30, come see Laughter Against the Machine do two shows (730 & 930) at the Improv Comedy Lab in Los Angeles. Advance tickets here. There are some half-price tickets with the code "LATMfan."

For the 730pm show, Kamau, Janine and Nato will be joined by Greg Proops, Maria Bamford, and Jimmy Dore. Woah!

For the 930pm show, we'll be joined by Maria Bamford, Aparna Nancherla, and Hasan Minhaj. Boom!

Also, on Tuesday, May 8th at the New Parish in Oakland, Nato will record his debut comedy cd with Rooftop Comedy over two live shows at 7 & 9pm. These shows will also feature Kevin Camia and Dhaya Lakshminarayanan. Advance tickets here.

We look forward to releasing our tour documentary on June 9 at Netroots Nation in Providence, Rhode Island.

For funsies, this interview with Kamau about his forthcoming Late-Night Show on FX is entertaining and easy on the eyes.

And Janine co-wrote a hilarious list of suggested legislation by women to regulate men's reproductive health. Dig it.

Dear Zapatistas,

Are you sitting down?

We're pleased to announce that we'll be premiering the Laughter Against the Machine tour documentary (yes, this one) at Netroots Nation 2012. The conference runs June 7-10 in Providence, Rhode Island. We'll also be teaming up with Laughing Liberally for a standup comedy show.

Also, our own W. Kamau Bell will be starring in a new late-night show on FX, slated to premiere in August, which will be executive-produced by Chris Rock.

We're performing in Portland, Oregon and showing clips from the documentary at the Rebooting Democracy Conference on April 19. The show is open to the public.

The first-ever Laughter Against the Machine shows in Los Angeles will be Monday, April 30 at 730pm & 930pm at the Improv Lab. Advance tickets here.

Nato is recording his first comedy CD at 7 & 9pm on Tuesday, May 8 in Oakland at the New Parish. Advance tickets here.

The last chances for people in the Bay Area to see Kamau before the FX show kicks off will be with Nato on Mondays at the Comedy SuperPAC at the Hemlock Tavern or on Tuesday, April 17 with a new edition of the W. Kamau Bell Curve: Ending Racism in About an Hour. Advance tickets here.

Thanks for making all this possible! You can stand up now.

--Kamau, Janine, Nato

Dear Rebel Alliance,

We're so excited to share our first 1-minute teaser for the Laughter Against the Machine tour documentary. Our friend Baratunde Thurston showed it last weekend during his keynote at South By Southwest. We hope you like it!

This was only possible thanks to you. So, thanks. Look for more video soon and the  film to be released this summer.

Meanwhile, in other Laughter Against the Machine news: we'll be performing at the Rebooting Democracy conference in Portland, Oregon on April 19 and at the Improv Lab in Hollywood on April 30.

Kamau and Nato have started a weekly comedy residency called Comedy SuperPAC: Promoting Good Comedy & Great Causes Since 2012! It runs Mondays at 7pm through May 7 at the Hemlock Tavern in San Francisco. Partial proceeds to benefit Colorlines. More info and our schedule of guests here.

Janine will be criss-crossing the globe via the Women In Comedy Festival on March 23, the Glasgow International Comedy Festival on March 31, and then reuniting with Nato in Portland for the Bridgetown Comedy Festival on April 12-15. Kamau will perform his solo show at the Moontower Comedy Festival in Austin, Texas April 25-28.

Finally, Nato will record his debut comedy CD in Oakland at The New Parish on Tuesday, May 8. Two shows at 7 & 9pm. Advance tickets here.

One way or another, we'll see you soon.

Best,

Kamau, Janine, Nato

Hey Freedom Fighters,

THIS THURSDAY 2/2, Laughter Against Machine is presenting a special show for SF Sketchfest at the Eureka Theatre. W. Kamau Bell, Janine Brito, & Nato Green will give you a first look at clips from our upcoming tour documentary, a Q&A moderated by writer Hiya Swanhuyser, and ye olde stand-up comedy. Even if you've seen us recently, there will be plenty of new LATM material for you to enjoy, and we have no more LATM shows in the Bay Area on the docket in 2012. Info and tickets here.

Huffington Post recently ran a great interview with Kamau about our take on "political" comedy. Read it here.

In other HuffPo news, Nato has a new blog we hope you enjoy: "Fighting Cynicism Without and Within," about how Occupy Wall Street achieved something historically unprecedented by getting Nato to shut up.

Dig it!

Kamau, Janine, & Nato

Happy New Year! 

We can't wait to finish the documentary and get it to you soon.

In the meantime, SF Sketchfest is presenting a special evening with Laughter Against the Machine on Thursday, February 2 at the Eureka Theatre in San Francisco. In addition to stand-up, we'll be showing the first clips from the forthcoming tour documentary that happened because of you, and there will be a Q&A moderated by writer Hiya Swanhuyser. Hope you can come.

Also, we've been busy lately, collectively and singly.

Janine had the 3rd installment of her joint venture with Emily Heller: Girl Talk at the SF Punchline. The SF Weekly saluted Janine & Emily for their "commitment to boundary-pushing, brutally funny comedy that's staunchly populist but could still send a grad student looking for her well-worn copy of Gender Trouble."

Meanwhile, Kamau wrote a piece in Colorlines with the journalistically objective title, "5 Signs You’re Acting Like a White Guy (Or, How To Not Be Gene Marks)" about the white Forbes columnist who decided to hold forth on what he would do if he were poor and black. According to Marks, black poverty could be solved if only black kids had the good sense to realize they need good grades and to watch TED talks. Kamau's response, while simultaneously funny and profound in the way we can rely on from Kamau, also offended some white guys who didn't want to be lumped together with jerks. Or something.

Kamau also wrote about how Louis CK is in the rare position of being both the comedian the mainstream media is most interested in while comedians generally agree that he's the MAN.

Finally, our 4th Annual New Year's Eve shows at the Phoenix Theatre in San Francisco were sold out, fun, and raucous as usual. They were also attended by great press coverage by the likes of the SF Examiner, the Bay Citizen, and the East Bay Express. For example, the East Bay Express described "the consistently thought-provoking content and the performers' keen ability to stay on top of pop culture."

We do our best.

More soon.

Love,

Kamau, Nato, Janine