Chronically Funny: A Comedy Revolution Featuring an All-Disabled Lineup of Women on October 28
The Passionistas Project Equality Exchange is partnering with comic, voice-over artist, host and actor Selene Luna (“Coco” and Margaret Cho's “The Cho Show”) for Chronically Funny: A Comedy Revolution Featuring an All-Disabled Lineup of Women, which will be held virtually on Wednesday, October 28 at 8 pm EST/5 pm PST. For the first time in comedy history, a virtual line-up of all female performers with disabilities will command the standup stage. The event will be followed by a conversation with the performers co-moderated by Luna alongside storyteller and journalist Cara Reedy.
"We met Selene when she did a storyteller event for our Passionistas Project Women's Equality Summit in August. We were so energized by her incredible talent and powerful story that we wanted to reach out to her about collaborating on an event to shine a light on the issues related to women with disabilities. We were thrilled when she suggested a night of standup comedy featuring women with disabilities," explained Amy Harrington, Co-Founder of The Passionistas Project.
The voice of Tía Rosita in Disney-Pixar’s Academy Award & Golden Globe Awards' Winner “Coco,” Luna is also producing the event along with Passionistas Project. An established presence in Hollywood, Luna has had multiple roles in movies and TV shows such as “Celebrity Wife Swap,” “Lionsgate’s My Bloody Valentine 3D” and Margaret Cho’s “The Cho Show,” the Mexican-American actress who lives with a physical disability, has also broken ground as a featured burlesque dancer in five national tours of the undisputed “Queen of Burlesque, Dita Von Teese.”
“Disabled rights are civil rights,” said Luna. “The disabled community shouldn’t be made to feel like a burden. We are not asking for favors, we demand equal access to the same quality of life as abled individuals.”
Luna's co-moderator Reedy is a journalist, an actor, a director and a photographer. Her journey in media has taken several twists and turns. She worked at CNN for ten years, produced docs, did some food writing and, yes, reported on disability. Cara freelanced at NPR on “Weekend All Things Considered.” In 2019 she co-produced a short doc for The Guardian “Dwarfism and Me.”
Rounding out the list of performers is:
Christie Buchele — Christie Buchele is an up-and-coming standup comic from Denver, Colorado. Christie has made a name for herself by sharing the heart-wrenching and hilarious realities of being a woman with a disability.
Jade Theriault — Jade Theriault is a cyborg who combines provocative thought with moving furniture. Jade was manufactured in the California Bay and has performed at many showcases including “Tourette’s Without Regrets” and “Critical Hit.” They perform at The Punchline, Cobbs Comedy Club, Tommy T's and Delirium’s weekly show “#triviaLOL."
Nina G — Nina G is a comedian, professional speaker and author of “Stutterer Interrupted.” She has been featured in/on everything from NPR's “51%,” BBC's “Ouch,” Psychology Today, Tedx, multiple daytime talk shows, “Howard (Stern) 100 News” and even the Stuttering John Podcast.
Santina Muha — You may know Santina Muha from her role as Beth on the Netflix comedy “One Day at a Time” or Santina the PA on IFC’s “Comedy Bang! Bang!” She can also be seen in the Gus Van Sant film “Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot” opposite Joaquin Phoenix and in the popular indie film “Greener Grass.”
As a media company that emboldens women to follow their passions, The Passionistas Project works diligently to create opportunities for all women’s voices to be heard. By gathering passionate women who are experts in their respective fields to entertain and speak on a variety of topics related to women’s equality, their Equality Exchange brings together a unique and powerful group to help attendees gain the knowledge and tools they need to band together to create equal rights for all women.
“We held our first annual Passionistas Project Women’s Equality Summit in August and were thrilled with the response we received but we knew there was more work to be done. So, we decided to keep the conversation going by diving deeper into the issues of equality discussed at the Summit,” said Nancy Harrington, Co-Founder of The Passionistas Project. Each month the Equality Exchange will present an event focused on a topic pertinent to equality for all women including Indigenous women, the LGBTQIA+ community, financial equity, Black women and more.
A portion of the proceeds and donations from the October event will be made to DESI — Designated Exceptional Services for Independence. The DESI mission is to teach those with disabilities to live independent lives, so they can be their own person, make their own decisions and experience the joy of doing so.
Chronically Funny: A Comedy Revolution Featuring an All-Disabled Lineup of Women will be held virtually on Wednesday, October 28 at 8 pm EST/5 pm PST. Tickets are $10 and upgrades will be available ranging from $25 to $35 for tickets to the event plus Passionistas Project merchandise. Donations to DESI are encouraged. To purchase tickets visit http://bit.ly/ChronicallyFunnyPassionistas.
ABOUT THE PASSIONISTAS
Sisters Amy and Nancy Harrington have been inspired by the new women’s movement and decided to use their skills as celebrity interviewers to work to tell a different kind of story through The Passionistas Project Podcast, the annual Passionistas Project Women's Equality Summit and their monthly Passionistas Project Equality Exchange events. Where many media companies reserve their platform for the elite, Amy and Nancy are talking to amazing women who don't often get an opportunity to share their stories and who are making a huge difference by choosing unique paths. From the founder of a successful ice cream company to a volcano scientist running for office to an artist who makes sculptures using melted down nuclear weapons, Amy and Nancy shine a light on the positive stories of women. Having built a career based on their love of pop culture, Amy and Nancy's positive entertainment content — including interviews, articles and trivia challenges — has been syndicated to Thrive Global, Yahoo, OMG!, Examiner, Belief.net and many more. They have conducted over 1,400 interviews including more than 60 one-on-one oral histories for The Interviews for the Television Academy — including in-depth conversations with actors Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Danny DeVito, Ed O’Neill and Charlotte Rae, former CBS president Nina Tassler and esteemed television directors Beth McCarthy Miller and Pamela Fryman. They were handpicked by OWN to be part of an intimate digital press corps covering “Oprah’s Lifeclass” during Winfrey’s tour of the U.S. and Toronto. For more information go to https://www.thepassionistasproject.com/about.
ABOUT DESI
The DESI mission is to teach those with disabilities to live independent lives, so they can be their own person, make their own decisions and experience the joy of doing so. DESI was founded in 2008 to help support families with children and young adults with developmental disabilities. Their goal is to make their clients independent and become active members of their community. These activities could be tasks such as utilizing public transportation, attending post secondary education, acquiring employment, micro-enterprising, building appropriate social skills, learning about financial budgeting and any other areas in which assistance is desired. To learn more about DESI visit www.desiserve.org.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Amy & Nancy Harrington, Co-Founders
The Passionistas Project
info@thepassionistasproject.com
818-434-4383
818-406-9077
