Comedy as a Tool for Social Change In my 25 years of social justice work, I have witnessed the power of joyous communication. Humor eases conflict between people and can enlighten us to the world’s ills. I use humor to get at the heart of difficult issues and to simplify complicated ideas. For the past 15 years, I have done stand-up comedy for countless Jewish, Queer, and/or Feminist gatherings that needed a wake-up call, a break from the struggle, or just a good laugh. I regularly perform at clubs and bars, college groups, Pride festivals, and non-profit fundraisers. For five years, I was the Executive Director of the Lesbian Community Cancer Project where I learned how to successfully integrate comedy into my leadership style. I also know what college life is like today from my work in Career Advising at both the University of Chicago and Tulane University. I am most proud of having been at the forefront of creating an inclusive movement both as the partner to genderqueer and transmen and transitioning a lesbian organization to become trans inclusive and trans positive. I’ve pulled all of these experiences together in developing the following programs geared especially toward today’s leaders and activists who are committed to social change. Choose one or mix them together! Lecture: Comedy as Social Justice Activism In this 45-minute lecture, participants will gain a deeper understanding of why a sense of humor matters in our daily lives and in our vision of a more just future. They will learn how comedy reveals the cracks in structures of power and allows for the truth to be spoken in transformative ways. Comedy - like other forms of passionate speech - matters to social justice work and should be fully integrated into our advocacy and communities. Workshop: Joke Writing for the Formerly Marginalized and Other Leaders In this 45-minute workshop, participants will discuss why comedy matters in our daily lives and how we can use it to help others understand us better. We will discuss how to deal with sensitive and personal topics in an ethical way and how to engage and uplift audiences. We will break down the structure of a joke to see how it works and write our own original jokes in class. This workshop is perfect for anyone who wants to find the funny in their experiences! Make your next rally memorable! Help your next meeting run more smoothly! Performance: One-Woman Show “Bad Feminist” I perform my 45-minute show all across the country, from San Francisco to Provincetown and in small towns in the middle. I talk about feminism, sex, growing up Jewish, and all things queer. See for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/jessicahalem. TESTIMONIALS Margaret Cho, Comic: “Awesomely hilarious and desperately needed comic for our gay age." Robin Matthies, Director LGBT Campus Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison: "With quick wit, feminist ways, and humor that penetrates, Jessica offers a refreshing spin on activism! Students were talking about her weeks after her visit.” Ben Saks, Assistant Professor, Religious Studies, Virginia Tech: “Jessica Halem is devilishly brilliant. Her irreverence toward conventional social clichés marked by her vehement disregard for politically correct semantic abstinence is matched by her uncanny ability to weave her own biography, Yiddishkeit (“Jewishness”), the social and economic criticism of Karl Marx, three decades of feminism, into an iconoclastic call for social justice in a new age.”

Comedy as a Tool for Social Change

In my 25 years of social justice work, I have witnessed the power of joyous communication. Humor eases conflict between people and can enlighten us to the world’s ills. I use humor to get at the heart of difficult issues and to simplify complicated ideas. For the past 15 years, I have done stand-up comedy for countless Jewish, Queer, and/or Feminist gatherings that needed a wake-up call, a break from the struggle, or just a good laugh. I regularly perform at clubs and bars, college groups, Pride festivals, and non-profit fundraisers.

For five years, I was the Executive Director of the Lesbian Community Cancer Project where I learned how to successfully integrate comedy into my leadership style. I also know what college life is like today from my work in Career Advising at both the University of Chicago and Tulane University. I am most proud of having been at the forefront of creating an inclusive movement both as the partner to genderqueer and transmen and transitioning a lesbian organization to become trans inclusive and trans positive.

I’ve pulled all of these experiences together in developing the following programs geared especially toward today’s leaders and activists who are committed to social change. Choose one or mix them together!

Lecture: Comedy as Social Justice Activism

In this 45-minute lecture, participants will gain a deeper understanding of why a sense of humor matters in our daily lives and in our vision of a more just future. They will learn how comedy reveals the cracks in structures of power and allows for the truth to be spoken in transformative ways. Comedy - like other forms of passionate speech - matters to social justice work and should be fully integrated into our advocacy and communities.

Workshop: Joke Writing for the Formerly Marginalized and Other Leaders

In this 45-minute workshop, participants will discuss why comedy matters in our daily lives and how we can use it to help others understand us better. We will discuss how to deal with sensitive and personal topics in an ethical way and how to engage and uplift audiences. We will break down the structure of a joke to see how it works and write our own original jokes in class. This workshop is perfect for anyone who wants to find the funny in their experiences! Make your next rally memorable! Help your next meeting run more smoothly!

Performance: One-Woman Show “Bad Feminist”

I perform my 45-minute show all across the country, from San Francisco to Provincetown and in small towns in the middle. I talk about feminism, sex, growing up Jewish, and all things queer. See for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/jessicahalem.

TESTIMONIALS

Margaret Cho, Comic: “Awesomely hilarious and desperately needed comic for our gay age."

Robin Matthies, Director LGBT Campus Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison: "With quick wit, feminist ways, and humor that penetrates, Jessica offers a refreshing spin on activism! Students were talking about her weeks after her visit.”

Ben Saks, Assistant Professor, Religious Studies, Virginia Tech: “Jessica Halem is devilishly brilliant. Her irreverence toward conventional social clichés marked by her vehement disregard for politically correct semantic abstinence is matched by her uncanny ability to weave her own biography, Yiddishkeit (“Jewishness”), the social and economic criticism of Karl Marx, three decades of feminism, into an iconoclastic call for social justice in a new age.”