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Andrew Hankinson
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Andrew Hankinson, author of You Could Do Something Amazing with Your Life [You are Raoul Moat] tells the story of the Comedy Cellar – a tiny basement club in New York City which helped launch the careers of some of the biggest comedians of our time.
A place where performers could hone their acts by experimenting and taking risks, the club’s owners, the Dworman family, created a space where freedom of expression was total. The only threat to it was a lack of laughs.
Using the words of the owners, comedians, and increasingly vocal customers, Hankinson asks how did Manny Dworman, an Israeli taxi driver create a bastion for so many influential comedians? And what makes a club thrive or a joke work? Raising questions about language, identity, taste, racism, power and more, this is a many-sided conversation about the perils, pride, and politics of modern comedy and where the moral limits of laughter lie.
Tonight’s event will be chaired by writer & journalist Mollie Goodfellow.
Running time: 60 minutes
A place where performers could hone their acts by experimenting and taking risks, the club’s owners, the Dworman family, created a space where freedom of expression was total. The only threat to it was a lack of laughs.
Using the words of the owners, comedians, and increasingly vocal customers, Hankinson asks how did Manny Dworman, an Israeli taxi driver create a bastion for so many influential comedians? And what makes a club thrive or a joke work? Raising questions about language, identity, taste, racism, power and more, this is a many-sided conversation about the perils, pride, and politics of modern comedy and where the moral limits of laughter lie.
Tonight’s event will be chaired by writer & journalist Mollie Goodfellow.
Running time: 60 minutes