My roommate asked if I would venture with her to the mall and help her pick out a fabulous pair of prescription sunglasses. As a birthday/Christmas present from her mom she had a $500 voucher and there is nothing I can do better than spend other peoples' money. 

When we arrived at Lenscrafter's I was underwhelmed by the selection. It seemed as though we were going to resign ourselves to some Ray Ban aviator sunglasses. Then, when we had given up all hope, I saw something sparkle and shimmer from across the store. Out of my periphery, I noticed the section devoted to designer sunglasses and instantly I gravitated toward a pair of Tiffany sunglasses. As we were checking out - which was an awkward and tiresome experience - my roommate debated about whether she should opt out of the $30.00 flat rate insurance, guaranteeing protection for her Tiffany glasses in the event of dents, scratches, or breaks. As she was weighing the pros and cons, I simply gave my roommate a look and said "they're Tiffany sunglasses .... get the insurance". The issue was moot at that point. 

I then started to think about all of the things that people have insured in their lives; glasses, cars, pets, laptops, cell phones, etc. Yet so many of us go without health insurance. We worry about what might potentially happen to our iPhone, especially after the sales rep goes through the gambit of possibilities, and get talked into paying the extra fees. Yet, if someone told us that we could potentially lose our teeth, suffer a heart ache or contract some form of cancer, we believe that we do not need it - of course nothing bad will ever happen to us, but I know I am going to drop my iPhone into the toilet and need that water damage protection.

It's a little ridiculous. However don't eve get me started on the people that insure different parts of their body ... except for porn stars ... that's acceptable. 

I’m a sexual health educator tasked with educating youth about the potential risks and consequences of engaging in unprotected sex and arming them with the tools that they need to protect themselves should they ever have sex. Working in the state of Nevada, a state leading the nation in unplanned teen pregnancy rates and rates of contraction for STIs/STDs, I believe this work to be important.

The conservative pro-life movement has come out of the woodwork swinging, attempting to dismantle every single medical provision that would work to protect women or give them any semblance of power or control. Congress is currently debating a bill that would reinforce an already existing law allowing medical professionals to legally refuse to give a woman an abortion, even if the operation would save her life. The great and wonderful state of Pennsylvania, touting that it’s the “State of Independence” , looks like it will pass their ironically titled “Women’s Right to Know Act” mandating that woman are shown an ultrasound of their developing fetus to scare, shame and guilt them into reconsidering the option to end their pregnancy. Finally, in the forward-minded state of Mississippi, a “Personhood Amendment” is being introduced to the state’s constitution. This “Personhood Amendment” would ban all abortions, regardless of the situation (rape, incest, etc) but would go above and beyond by banning the morning after pill (used to prevent pregnancy), many forms of hormonal contraception, and some IUDs (inter-uterine devices). To top it all off, the amendment would ban in vitro fertilization. There is even a school in Canada that is granting middle-school aged children extra credit for engaging in anti-choice protesting. The war on reproductive rights is escalating to new and moronic heights.

I have a question for the pro-life moment. I recognize, though don’t agree with, your beliefs that a bundle of cells could and should have the same rights and protections – if not more – than the woman carrying said cells to term and then subsequently taking care of said child for the rest of her life. So if life is so important, so much so that Mississippi is currently defining a “person” to include a fertilized egg, where is the nationwide mandate for prenatal vitamins and preventative care for all pregnant women? Would we then arrest pregnant women who are drinking, smoking, doing drugs or eating unhealthily for they could be putting their child at risk and potentially causing a whole host of life-altering complications for the child. Oh, that might be a little expensive and intrusive for the laissez-faire mentality of Republicans. We wouldn’t want to interfere in the lives of our citizenry; especially if that intrusion costs the government money for social services. Ok, what about the all those teen moms that you valiantly protected, by shaming them into a having a child that they cannot afford nor take care of; are we going to start paying mothers for having children to subsidize their expenses and make sure they can adequately care for their child’s life that we spent so much time and energy saving? No, they wouldn’t do that. Well, let’s at least give that child a world class education that is free of charge. I mean we protected this child’s life didn’t we? Let’s ensure that this child does something beneficial to our society, since we heroically swooped in to save the life of this child and mother. No the pro-life movement would never go for that. How dare education be an accessible right to all? In fact, isn’t the conservative base advocating for funding cuts to the public school system, eliminating teachers’ right to collective bargaining, denying them domestic partnerships or civil unions for them and their partners, and forcing schools to adopt an abstinence-only sexual education curriculum in order to receive much needed Federal funding for supplies?

It seems to me that the pro-life movement cares only up until the point where the child is delivered into world. Once they are sure that the plans of the creepy liberal baby-killers have been thwarted, they leave the mother and child alone, patting themselves on the back for a job well done. They do not care about the resources available to this child (ironic that it is the conservative base diminishing these precious resources), the environment where the child lives – whether that child is born into a house of drugs, alcohol and/or abuse – or what kind of future this child might have. It seems rather contradictory to me. For a political party that cringes at the idea of “big government” and its constant liberal interference into the lives of morally decent tax-paying Christian citizens of America, they seem to want to have complete control over a woman’s reproductive choice and deciding how one should lead their life. Oh that’s right; conservatives believe it is a religious mandate from God to interfere in political manners only if they are relevant to maintaining the core, family-centric values of America. Let’s regulate the gays, the promiscuous abortion-seeking women and those pesky illegal immigrants attempting to steal the jobs that no one wants. However, everyone else living their white, Christian, suburban lifestyle should be allowed to conduct their lives without the government stepping in – whether they have gay scandals, are addicted to prescription pills, or hire illegal workers that they do not pay.             

I hope that this massive spiritual and cultural awakening that I have heard is rumored to happen, will eliminate people’s general stupidity and moronic tendencies. Or …. A portal to an alternate dimension transports them to a land far far away from here could work as well.  

It has been a wild and tumultuous campaign season rife with scientific inaccuracies and scapegoating. It is hard to imagine that the American public has the slightest indication about the political stances of their candidates - aside from hate and general stupidity. What really stood out to me was an article I came across on The New Civil Rights Movement about an incidence involving Rick Santorum, giving a campaign speech at his alma mater, where a student reemed him out for his policies about same-sex marriage and homosexuality in general. Santorum, as you might also remember, has been throwing a tantrum because when you google his name a very vulgar yet incredibly hilarious description comes up - courtesy of Dan Savage.  The article discusses Santorum's, and other anti-gay activists, recent spell of whining about how the mean scary liberals, with their ever-ending supply of agendas, continue to cast such inspirations of reason and logic like himself, Michele Bachman, and others as bigots. Piers Morgan has called by Christine O'Donnell and Rick Santorum bigots on his show for their radical viewpoints. Rick Santorum says he would love his hypothetical gay son and then in the next breath stated that the Bible contains eternal truths and that homosexuality defies natural law and reason. 

How about this for a compromise. I will stop calling the O'Donnell's, the Bachmans, and the Santorums of the world bigots when the following happens. I will stop calling them bigots when the organizations that they support stop using fear tactics to convince the families of America that transgender individuals are waiting inside bathrooms to corrupt women and small children. I will stop calling them bigots when news anchors, who are responsible for delivering the news to America in an impartial refrain from cringing and practically vomiting on stage as they discuss Chaz Bono and what surgeries he has or has not gotten. I will stop calling them bullies preaching venomous vile when TV stars don't threaten to kill their son should he come out as gay or when a professional athlete, in a heat of frustrating moment, chooses to call a ref a fag. I pray for a world where 14-years don't feel broken-down due to incessant bullying and conclude that the only way they will find relief or peace is to end their life; I wonder what the bigots of the world pray for? Do they pray for a world where those bullies that drove a 14 year-old to end his life celebrate his death at a school dance? I wonder what other messages gay teen youth receive about their identity that they may or may not be struggling with? Conservatives are outraged that the gays have infiltrated comic books; heaven forbid the new bi-racial Spiderman might be gay and soon there will be a gay marriage in Archie. Of course they do not seem to be too concerned when actual gay soldiers in real life get booed by hateful individuals who have probably not seen a day of military service in their life. They were probably too busy kicking lesbians off of planes, citing that their public displays of love and affection, are lewd and well eventually lead to a full out lesbian orgy on the plane.

Dear bigots, you spout hate and judgement for a group of people and then fashion yourself the champion of the people and of Democracy. You rail against those sneaky liberals in Washington yet spoon-feed your constituents medically inaccurate information and sacrifice minorities for a few points on the poll. Your hatred influences the minds of Americans, because for whatever reason people have classified you as leaders, and your illogical prejudice provides them ample justification and reason to carry out their hatred. 

You can't get mad because people label you a bigot, for these are your true colors. Just as I let my big mother-fucking gay colors fly brightly everyday. 

This is a propaganda poster, courtesy of our lovely friends at the Massachusetts Family Institute, used as a fear tactic to inspire hatred in the confused minds of conservatives statewide. 

Currently in the Massachusetts legislator there is a bill that would make gender identity or expression protected identities under the state's non-discrimination policy. Once again, opponents of the bill paint a catastrophic picture of the consequences of such a bill passing. They argue that should the bill pass (1) children will be indoctrinated with an ideology that encourages them to explore and express their gender identity and/or expression in a safe space - perish the thought (2) women and children will be put at severe risks as hoards of transgender-individuals attempt to violate the sanctity of a single-sex bathroom (3) Women-only fitness facilities will have to open the door to ever Tom, Dick and Harry that wishes to gain admittance (4) Last but certainly not least, anyone who even expresses disapproval of the bill could be charged with a dreaded "hate crime". 

So the Massachusetts Family Institute's (MFI) response to such a completely dire and bleak future is to contrive a hateful persuasive marketing campaign to instill fervent fear in the citizens of Massachusetts. Posters that proudly display the haunting message "Who's going to be waiting for your wife and daughter?" are splayed throughout the city. The take-home-lesson from this all is that according to MFI, bathrooms and other public facilities are completely safe and only with the passage of this bill will these spaces become unsafe and predatorily spaces. They argue, like all bills that afford rights to "special interest populations, the "Bathroom Bill" would open the world to a whole host of terrors. 

Various businesses and public institutions, including colleges, have already made changes to their facilities to accommodate transgender individuals. Whether it be gender neutral housing in the dorms or gender neutral bathrooms in offices, studies have demonstrated the positive impact these changes have made. Students in housing feel that they are part of an accepting diverse community where they can learn and grow in a supportive environment - regardless of their identity. Transgender individuals are people who are attempting to live their true and authentic lives and deserve respect, safety and acceptance. They do not deserve to be cast as the dark deviants, hiding in the shadows of bathroom stalls, ready to prance on the moral fiber and integrity of America. In the closing months of 2011, can we believe that society has moved beyond believing the irrational and hate-filled ideology of scared fanatics? Can we hope that we have raised our consciousness to recognize these messages for what they truly are; hurtful, damaging discrimination that does nothing to serve our society.  

It's really tragic to witness the slow and eminent downfall of an institution of higher education. Since the beginning of March, when the University announced a $26 million dollar budget cut, a new sense of paranoia has flooded the city. Professors and graduate students remain fearful of their positions being eliminated and departments are having to make cuts across the board while students are having to incur the ever increasing costs of college. Of course, those increasing costs are not gaining them access to a quality education, but instead asubstandard and sub par experience. Many of my friends are majoring in theater or dance at UNR; both of these programs face cuts and eventual elimination.

I believe that education is a right for all. Why, would we as a nation not want the most educated populace in the world? Why do we assume that destroying the education system, not only in Nevada, but in the US is somehow going to generate more positive results? Didn't Governor Sandoval boast about having this fabulous education plan? Where has that plan gotten us?

Unfortunately, what is invariably going to happen is the mass exodus of students and faculty from this state, taking with them their knowledge, talent, and money. They will leave Nevada and invest their resources in other states; one that does not rank 50th in the nation for education.

The fall of UNR, represents only the beginning of a very very very bad year. An assumption that budget cuts will stop there is laughable; more cuts need to be made. Regrettably, individuals that are below the age of 18 have very little power and political clout to enact change; therefore social programs geared toward early education, high school music programs, etc are often first on the chopping block. More often than not, representatives will listen to their largest constituent base - who may or may not have children and may or may not support educational endeavours. Perhaps they are voting to expand social security coverage or voting to lower taxes oblivious that money for programs needs to come from somewhere. It sucks even more because research - ya know very costly research - has shown that engagement of children through early education programs has shown to improve grades, behaviors, and chances for future education or careers. Though we have these facts staring at us, we still chose to do nothing.

So let me get this straight. We already had a failing education system before the collapse of the economy. Now that the economy sucks, we feel that the best way to address this problem is make additional cuts to said education system - though they have no money to begin with - and assume that everything will work out in the end? Great we'll be broke and have an uneducated citizenry.

Could somebody please give me a small country to rule? Nothing large or grandiose, but just my own country, because part of me feels that I would be able to rule a country better than some of our current leaders. I would have ridiculous holidays as excuses for days off, amazing social benefits, and my theatre, music, and dance programs would be the best in the world. This would be our flag; Anybody who does not like rainbows is not welcome in my Gay New World. Also, as a Ginger, I see it as my moral responsibility to give Ginger's free sunblock for life.  Anybody want to come?

When does life begin? If and when do we as human beings begin to have souls? At what point do we as a society begin to make judgments on the value of said lives? The novel “Unwind”, written by Neal Shusterman, tackles these questions in this gripping novel. The United States has just recovered from its second Civil War; known as the Heartland War, this war was fought over reproductive rights with the pro-life movement and the pro-choice movement waging the battle. A document, entitled the Bill of Life, was born as a compromise between the two factions to end the war. The Bill of Life simply stated that:

“Human life may not be touched from the moment of conception until a child reaches the age of thirteen. However, between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, a parent may choose to retroactively “abort” a child … on the condition that the child’s life doesn’t “technically” end. The process by which a child is both terminated and yet kept alive is called “unwinding”. Unwinding is now a common and accepted practice in society”.

Enter Connon, Lev, and Risa – the main characters of the story – who, for all very different reasons, are sent to be unwound. Connor, a troubled youth, prone to fights and temperamental behaviors, feels betrayed by his parents when they decide to give up on him and sign away his life to a harvest camp. Lev, from a religious background, is the tenth child in his family and therefore was destined from birth to serve as a tithe and be sacrificed for the greater good. He openly accepts his fate and welcomes it in fact. Risa, a beautiful pianist, has no parents and has grown up in a state home her whole life. However with more children finding their way into state homes and the increasing costs of maintaining these homes, state home boards often send children they have deemed to have reached their potential to a harvest camp – to make room for more children.  A tribunal, comprised of “suits”, effectively ends Risa’s life and she has no control or say in the matter. None of them did in fact. A series of bizarre circumstances puts these three children on the run as they try to survive to eighteen and thus evade the dreaded unwinding process. Through the unwinding process every single part of the human body is recycled – organs, skin, brain tissue, limbs – and given to those in need. What is striking is that though the body is disassembled and distribute to patients around the world remnants of that person’s soul, muscle memory, consciousness remains within the limbs and organs.

The story, narrated from each of the main characters at various points, relates their journey as they travel from safe house to safe house on their way to a safe haven known only as the graveyard. The graveyard, which is a desert of decommissioned jets in Arizona, serves as a refuge for Unwinds – a place from them to reach eighteen and re-enter society under a new false identity. All of them are striving to stay alive and remain whole.

It was an interesting and novel concept; parents can get rid of their “problematic” children and are absolved from guilt because the children don’t necessarily die, but are recycled to make the lives of others better. One part that was particularly poignant was, while fleeing to safety, Connor and three other boys find themselves sealed in a cargo crate and with nothing else to do, begin to examine the unwinding process. What unfolds is a philosophical discussion told through children using the rhetoric of pro-lifers and pro-choicers, and the overall effect is incredible. Is it such a stretch of the imagination for something like this to happen? Will the divisive polarizing politics of the United State eventually lead to a scenario such as this? Classified is young adult fiction, this book shows us all a potentially and entirely plausible future where life is both valued and discarded just as easily. 

 True Story. Now given my eccentric nature, my love for bedazzled accessories, and appreciation for the male form, you would assume that I would have a general mistrust and hatred for all republicans and conservatives. I use to, when I began my political career as a budding LGBT activist. I use to believe that all Republicans where morally corrupt ignorant assholes hell bent on making MY LIFE more difficult. I took their rhetoric of a “war” plaguing America to heart and believed myself to be a foot soldier in some rainbow army.

Then I went to college and was exposed to the myriad of political perspectives and viewpoints. Suddenly I found liberal Republicans, conservative Democrats, Socialists, Independents, and apathetic voters. Suddenly the lines separating parties become blurred and indistinguishable in my eyes. Sometimes it felt as though the only difference between Republicans and Democrats was a party that was going to outright hate you to your face and a party that was going to give lip service and then secretly hate you behind your back. At the end of the day these party identifications, like most of the terms and labels we apply to groups, are imperfect and inadequate.

Suddenly, in my mind, the paradigm shifted just ever so slightly. It suddenly no longer became a debate between Republicans and Democrats but between stupid asses and non-stupid asses. At this point I don’t really care what party you align yourself with – even the Teabaggers of the world – as long as you’re not an ignorant Mofo.

I went to a Republican Party event here in Reno on Saturday. It was the opening of their “victory” office and it was a gathering of Republican voters in the area as well as all the potential candidates. It kind of felt like that scene in “Witches” where the old crones all gathered, revealed their gnarled and disfigured faces, and there was me hiding in the corner praying that they wouldn’t sniff me out and turn me into a mouse. There I was trying to do my job and I felt that I set off this alarm … “HOMO IN THE ROOM, THERE IS A HOMO IN THE ROOM, and PLEASE ALERT ALL STAFF”. People avoided me, organizers wouldn’t talk to me, and my gayness – along with my age – made me both a memorable entity and a forgettable face all at the same time. I began to chide myself stating how stupid I was. I find myself in the belly of the beast with my bedazzled sunglasses, my flaming hair, and my rainbow bracelet and thought to myself; did I even stand a chance?

The other slightly surprising thing was the amount of gays that I saw not only working for candidates but attending the event in general support. Lord Almighty, did they take one look at me and ran in the opposite direction. It’s as if they were afraid I was going to blow their cover … oooh perhaps they were undercover agents attempting to take the party down from the inside like some Alias bullshit. I understand that there are gay Republicans, which is fine, supposedly it’s a free country and therefore I affirm your right to choose. I understand that some people gravitate more toward the economic and fiscal policies of Republicans but seriously, be a Libertarian or something.

The “family values” angle is trite and done – family values has crumbled to a non-existent heap of BS on the floor. Candidates espouse the need to protect families, the institution of marriage, and children but they don’t actually believe that – or don’t believe it for everyone. You believe in family values as long as it applies to white, Christian, English-speaking, heterosexual, and employed – well only the father is employed because the mother should stay at home - families. We want the government to step in and defend heterosexuals’ right to the ancient and sanctified institution of marriage but feel that the government should not waste time and money on pesky social services that provide innumerable benefits to children and families. If they decide to increase social programming on a local, state, or federal level we feel that the government is “TOO BIG” and want it to back off. However they still want the government to come in as the right hand of God to punish gays, women, people of color, and other minorities because frankly they are just asking a little too much with their equal rights protests.  

To quote my good friend Ash, who said it perfectly, “same shit, different day”.

I truly meant for this post to be up on 420 and then subsequently the days afterward, but in true stoner fashion I have waited til the end of the week to do it. So, many entities and institutions were paying homage to everyone's favorite lady in green – Miss Mary Jane. I performed on stage with the Utility Players and even had a guest spot on their podcast prior to their 2nd Annual 420 HOLIDAZE Show to discuss our first encounters with weed and our views on its decriminalization. I have provided the podcast episode below, you should all totally check it out.

It seems so ridiculous that we are still having conversations about marijuana. I hope that 20 or 30 years down the line we cringe at our naivety and our Shining-Time-Station attitude toward weed and its use. I have been a consistent pot smoker for about six years now. As with most individuals, I discovered weed in college and have never really turned back or in any way questioned my weed consumption.

Most of the rumors regarding weed are grossly untrue. Most of the pot smokers that I knew at my University also happened to be the ones that were running the school. They were involved in Greek life, the national guard, student government, and social justice and other inclusivity measures. They were the people with active social lives and often had to hold down multiple jobs in order to pay for the costs of higher education. In essence, in college all the stoners I knew were really intelligent, articulate, motivated individuals who just happened to really like smoking pot.

Now I understand, like any other substance, weed effects us all differently and our body responds to it differently, so I am by no means making a grand generalization about the effects of weed smoking on the body. However, I am stating there is a spectrum. Anti-drug lobbyists would like to paint the picture that pot smokers are lazy, apathetic, unmotivated individuals who, when they smoke, attain the intellectual capacity of dead moss growing on a log. I am sure there are individuals that the above statement might apply to, but over my six years of smoking pot most of the people that I have come across are by and large laid back & casual individuals who just like to toke up to relax.

Observing the behavior of drunk people over my lifetime frustrates me as to why weed is still not legal. Alcohol causes people to make stupid decisions, impairs judgments, destroys the body, and kills brain cells. Alcohol is often the root of car accidents, violence in bars, and domestic violence at home. I have seen college students drink so much that they black out, stumble around unaware of who they are or where they are – often bumping into people like me and spilling my drink – and at the end of the night have an intimate relationship with their toilet because their body is so sick of the poison that they put in it that it needs to throw it up. Funny, the most tragic or destructive thing I have seen a stoner do is have eater's remorse after ordering an extra large pizza with cheesy bread and downing it all with no assistance. I'm sure things have happened to people while being stoned, but how often do we hear about it.

I also had the privilege to study abroad in Amsterdam my last semester in college …. simmer and sit on that statement for a while ;) and it was the absolute best time of my life. Although my academic focus in the city centered on gender, sex, and sexuality I could not help but take in the weed culture present there and draw comparisons between my experience with weed in Amsterdam and of that in the United States. In Amsterdam all soft drugs are legal – hash, weed, and mushrooms – and are available for purchase in either coffee shops or head shops. These products are regulated and taxed. I was able to walk into an coffee shop and strike up a conversation with the owner about the different strands of marijuana, the type of high I should get, and any other information I wanted. Then you could chill out in the coffee shop, play some arcade games, get a fruit juice, and read.

I remember having a conversation with my host mother about drugs and the whole drug culture in Amsterdam. By in large, the people who smoke pot are tourists coming into the country with the sole purpose of smoking weed. When I asked her why – she pointed out that because it is illegal in other countries there exists this aura of mystery surrounding weed. She said it's exotic, hard to come by, and extremely expensive, but here in the Netherlands it is legal, sold everywhere, and relatively cheap. Similarly, this is the culture that these children grow up with and parents have conversations with their children about drugs and drug use. My host mother told me that she by no means is going to encourage her son to smoke weed or do other drugs but she is going to sit him down and have a conversation. She is going to give him all the facts and emphasize most importantly that if he is going to do it, to do it in a safe environment with people that he trusts.

Meanwhile our repressive society pretty much projectile vomits at the thought of legalizing pot. This is not true for everyone and there are even people who do not smoke weed but endorse the movement to legalize it. They see the millions of dollars this country is investing on the “war on drugs” and yet in the same hand see the decrease budgets that public school programs are working with. In the state of Nevada in 2007, the state government spent an average of $11,500 per inmate in matters related to weed and yet only spent a mere $4,500 on every child on their public education. Political pundits often use the rhetoric of the family and how important we need to invest in the FUTURE and the EDUCATION of our children and then we have figures like this, highlighting the hypocrisy. We would rather invest billions of dollars into a program that is largely ineffective – are we any closer to winning the war on drugs – instead of in music, arts, theater programs for our kids. We would rather spend the time and effort to catch random neighborhood weed dealer X than allow schools to purchase new textbooks, school supplies, and more. We would rather spend millions of dollars on prisons and incarcerating pot smokers/dealers than investing that money in college scholarship programs to provide free education to high school graduates. Why don't we just legalize it, tax the SHIT out of it, generate enough revenue off of it to I don't know FIX THE NATIONAL DEFICIT or perhaps get us out of this little economic recession I have heard so much about. But what do I know, I am just a little drag queen stoner ;)



This is an article that I wrote a little while back about the power that the stage holds especially with regards to political, cultural, and social change

The Importance of the Stage:

A space to convey messages, images, parodies, and satires

“It is through performances whether the individual or collective, that humans project images of themselves and the world to their audiences … thus, performances may weave complex webs of interaction and experience, all mediated through imagery¹” - Lesley Ferris Crossing the Stage

This is an interesting paradigm to consider. Many in the past have utilized the stage as forum to communicate or express an opinion or a point of view. Some have used the stage to educate their fans on current political pitfalls, inform them of which charitable organizations are worthy of recognition, or persuade individuals to take certain action or support a certain cause. The stage is an incredibly powerful tool for the performer; for a period of time all focus and attention is directed toward them. In essence, this is the reason that many performers give for the pursuance of their craft, because they wish to change the world, and the wish to do it through the stage.

Comedy has consistently been an art form that harnessed the power of the stage. Stand up comedians complain about the idiocies of presidential figures, sketch comedy shows – such as Saturday Night Live, MAD TV, Kids in the Hall - parody pop culturally relevant news in order to point out the ridiculousness of our obsession with media and pop culture, and more television shows are redefining what comedy in fact is and making comedy more accessible to the general population. Comedy is a vehicle by which important political, societal, and global messages are transported to our audience, but since those messages are laced in comedic satire, individuals tend to be more receptive to the message – as opposed to watching the news or having a professor lecture at them.

That is perhaps why many of us attend plays, musicals, comedy shows or watch movies and television shows, because – aside from being entertained – we are looking at these various media to provide answers or echo the feelings or sentiments we are experiencing. When a comedian relates the arduous task of going through airport security, many of us can relate to those feelings of frustration and find commonality with the comedian but also with the audience around us for we all shared a similar experience. The comic at this point may take an opportunity to make a comment on our definition of “terrorism” or “terrorist” or make a crack about the falling standards of customer service. A comedy sketch might tackle the issues of racism, sexism, or homophobia that plague our society, but do it in a way that is funny, poignant, and resonating with the audience member. Perhaps highlighting the ignorance of some through humor is a way to educate and enlighten individuals about their actions but also give voice and community to members of those minority populations and their experiences. It is important that we are aware of the power of the stage and be conscious of how we choose to wield that power.