Avery Dauer (junior) is hosting a stand-up comedy show called “Roof Comedy Night,” featuring comedians from Occidental and beyond, Oct. 23, 9 p.m. at 4653 Lincoln Ave.
Dauer said the comedy show is presented by Fang, Occidental’s Humor Magazine. According to Dauer, the lineup includes Kylie Vincent, a stand-up comedian who has been featured on Comedy Central and Don’t Tell Comedy, Zoe Zakson, who has performed on Netflix is a Joke, Andrew Eisenberg (senior) from Occidental’s Fantastiprov, Luke Binkow, who has performed at the Comedy Store and Dauer himself.
Dauer said he is looking forward to getting started and hopes to make this a monthly event.
“I’m excited to finally be running a show out [in Eagle Rock],” Dauer said. “If people want to go, I can start booking bigger and bigger headliners.”
Dauer said he started pursuing comedy two years ago in San Francisco during the gap year between his first year at Hofstra University and his sophomore year at Occidental.
“I went to a comedy show at the San Francisco Punchline, and then comedians started talking to me,” Dauer said. “They brought me up on stage, and they let me do two jokes randomly, and the video went crazy.”
Dauer said he participated in theater and basketball as a child, yet neither activity truly fulfilled him.
“I did a bunch of stuff, but none of it ever showed me the love or effort I put into it, and [comedy] is the only thing I’ve been able to progress in so far in such a short amount of time,” Dauer said.
Dauer said stand-up gives him the freedom to discuss topics that matter to him while entertaining an audience.
“I do comedy for me,” Dauer said. “I do comedy to say the things I want to say and cover the topics I want to cover. But I love making people laugh, and I like having a good time.”
According to Dauer, the comedy scene is welcoming to everyone regardless of their experience.
“It’s kind of fun, because comedians, no matter what, they are kind of working-class people. They don’t care that they’re just performing in a house, no matter what their credits are,” Dauer said.
Vincent, one of the performers, said she has been doing comedy for almost eight years, since she was 18. Vincent said her comedy career stemmed from her experience in theater.
“I’ve been doing theater since I was a kid. I would always get cast as not Ariel, but Sebastian the crab. So I was like, ‘All right, I guess I’m the funny one,’” Vincent said.
According to Vincent, since LA is so spread out, each pocket of the city has its own comedy scene.
“The East is a bunch of based, cool people. That’s where the more hip, more political people live anyway,” Vincent said. “I do the Westside too, but I do prefer the shows on the Eastside because it feels like more of my people.”
Vincent said she started a new show called “Lesion Lady.” Vincent said the show is about the brain lesion she was diagnosed with 10 months ago, which has affected her walking. Vincent said she performs a one-hour-long “Lesion Lady” show once a month.
“I did the first hour 18 days out of the hospital, and then every month, I do a new hour about my medical updates in the healthcare system,” Vincent said.
Vincent said she was interested in the Oct. 23 show hosted by Dauer in part because it is a way to connect with a college community.
“I just love anything that is community-oriented,” Vincent said. “I think it is important that we bring comedy to younger audiences and make it accessible.”
Vincent said comedy offers a way to process difficult experiences through humor.
“[Comedy offers] a place that is cathartic and fun for all my pain and suffering that I experience and that everyone else in America experiences,” Vincent said.
Eisenberg is the president of OxyMorons, Occidental’s stand-up comedy club, and a member of Fantastiprov. According to Eisenberg, he has been doing stand-up comedy for almost three years. Eisenberg said he looks forward to the Oct. 23 Eagle Rock show being run by and for Occidental students.
“There’s such an untapped market in the sense that there are so many students I know that love comedy, and making that more easily accessible without having to drive or without having to go far is nice,” Eisenberg said.
Eisenberg said he regularly performs at comedy shows and open mics in Downtown LA and Glendale.
“I try to do shows once a week or twice every other week,” Eisenberg said. “I try [to] go to open mics, which is [when] any comedian can go up and practice.”
Eisenberg said he is excited to expand the Occidental comedy audience through this rooftop show.
“I’ve been lucky enough to find good communities within the LA comedy scene, and bringing that to Oxy with OxyMorons was cool,” Eisenberg said.
Dauer said he hopes the show will give students an opportunity to connect with other Occidental students interested in comedy outside of class.
“I’m a transfer, so I didn’t really meet as many people as I wanted my first semester, and I didn’t really get to plug into the Oxy community as much as I wanted,” Dauer said. “So this is a good way for me to be a little more front-facing.”
Contact Olivia Adams at oadams@oxy.edu
