At a recent performance at the Laugh Factory, stand-up Carly Ballerini got onstage and yelled out, “Is anybody here gay?” No one in the crowded room responded. But Ballerini persevered, and she put on a set filled with jokes about her bisexuality. Often audiences think she’s straight, she says, so she needs to pronounce her queerness right away. As an alternative, she wanted to create a safe and celebratory space where performers are assumed to be queer.
“I had no intention of coming out as genderqueer, but then I saw another comic talk about being genderqueer on stage and I was like, ‘Oh, I can do it,’” Noll says. “It’s part of the reason I seek out queer performance and art and literature—it’s very important to recognize your own story in other things. It’s very empowering.”
Fri 4/14, 9:30 PM The Revival 1160 E. 55th<br/< the-revival.com $10
