funny women

12Mar2021Blogfemale comedians, funny women, Lori Ann Rambough, Queen of Comedy, standup comedians

Comedy Club Owner Jumps in the Ocean Every Day Until Clubs Reopen

Standup comedians and comedy clubs go together like catsup and French fries. Not only do the stages at comedy clubs across the country offer you the chance to enjoy a night of laughs, they also offer funny women and men the opportunity to try out new material and refine their sets.

We would have said that no one was more excited about the prospect of comedy clubs reopening than Sommore, one of the country’s most loved female comedians, but then we heard about Norm Laviolette.

Making a Splash

Norm is a Massachusetts-based comedy club owner and on May 1, 2020, he made a vow to jump into the ocean every single day until his venues re-open. “I’ve made terrible choices in my life, and this is one of them,” Laviolette said when he marked his 300th dip in the surf. He was only joking, kind of.

Our hats are off to Norm, not only has he kept that vow for more than 300 days straight, but he has also turned his daily dunking into a fundraiser for out-of-work actors and artists through his non-profit No Rest For The Wicked Funny Foundation, Inc.

“My daughter challenged me to jump in the ocean by our house on May 1st. It was cold but I thought, ‘Hey, why not do this every day, raise awareness for my clubs, Improv Asylum and Laugh Boston, and give me a little routine,’” he says. “I am an idiot”.

Of course, he never dreamed he would still be jumping into the ocean when winter rolled around again.

Norm has taken the plunge dressed as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Indiana Jones and Superman, among other things requested by people making donations to the cause.

Norm has raised more than $5,000 so far. As Norm notes, just about everyone has relied on TV, music, movies and books to stay sane during the pandemic. “Art and music and comedy and drama… they’re literally getting us through this nightmare,” he says. “And so many creative people are out of work and will be for the foreseeable future, I just figured I do a little something to help out.”

He doesn’t know yet when his clubs will reopen, but he is optimistic that the water will start to warm up a little bit this month.

If you would like to contribute to the cause, visit www.improvasylum.com/norest. You can follow Norm’s dunk’s online on Instagram, @beyond_the_norm_and.

And if you want to know when Lori Ann Rambough – aka Sommore, the Queen of Comedy – will make a return to the stage, keep checking in with us here.

15Nov2020Blogblack comedians, funny women, Lori Ann Rambough

Did the Pilgrims Have a Sense of Humor?

James McCauley

There were no Black comedians on the Mayflower when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. (But that is not at all surprising considering there were no Black people on board at all.) As for White comedians, the proof is not as definitive, but we would be willing to go out on a limb and say there weren’t any seriously funny White guys, either. (We get the idea that those Pilgrims took themselves pretty seriously.)

Hopefully, there were at least a few funny women, though. With 102 passengers crammed onto the Mayflower for more than 60 days, they probably could have used a laugh.

“The boat would have been rolling like a pig,” Conrad Humphreys, a professional sailor and skipper for a recreated sea journey of Captain William Bligh, told History. “The smell and stench of illness and sickness down below, and the freezing cold on deck in the elements, it would have been pretty miserable.”

400th Anniversary of the Mayflower’s Arrival in the New World

You might have been distracted by the pandemic and the elections and not realized that this year marks an important milestone in our nation’s history. “After more than two months (66 days) at sea, the Pilgrims finally arrived at Cape Cod on November 11, 1620,” the BBC reports.

“The Mayflower, like other 17th-century merchant ships, was a cargo vessel designed to haul lumber, fish and casks of French wine—not passengers. The 41 Pilgrims and 61 “strangers” (non-Separatists brought along as skilled craftsmen and indentured servants) who boarded the Mayflower in 1620 made for unusual cargo, and their destination was no less foreign,” History reports.

When they talk about the Pilgrims as “separatists,” they are talking about separating from the Church of England. If you paid attention during history class, you might remember that they thought the church needed to get back to a simpler form of worship.

Now, if you want to really make your head spin, just imagine how very VERY different the history of this country might have been if they had had black comedians like Lori Ann Rambough – aka Sommore! – in the group!