Last night, I hosted the "Be Happy" variety show in Chicago in response to the election results. You can read about the impetus for the show in this post.
I was blown away at the support for the show. Nine of my favorite performers happily donated their time and energy to the night, The Public House Theatre graciously donated the space, and we had over 80 audience members who packed the house for a night of comedy, magic, and mind reading.
At the end of the night, we totaled the donations and discovered we had raised over $1500 for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois! My original goal had been $1000, so I was ecstatic to know we had surpassed my expectations.
The demands of putting together a show is different than my usual job of just being an entertainer, so I was much more nervous/stressed out than usual. I am a perfectionist about little details and lost a ton of sleep making sure this thing came together. I'm exhausted and won't come down from last night for a few days - but I'm so happy that we did this.
A special thank you to the remarkable performers: Junior Stopka, Dennis Watkins, Adam Burke, Soli Santos, Sameena Mustafa, AJ Sacco, Bill Bullock, Cody Melcher, and Prateek Srivastava.
Also, thanks to my friends Byron and Sasha Hatfield, who run The Public House Theatre, and my wife Stephanie for taking pictures during the show.
The goal of the show was always to help people forget about the shitty parts of 2016 and "Be Happy" for a night. I was wearing so many hats - producer, host, performer, ACLU spokesperson - that I didn't have a chance to thank everyone who came last night.
So if you were in attendance, from the bottom of my heart, I want to say thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
It's so easy to stay home and pretend that a retweet is equal to activism. Thank you for getting out of your house, doing your part, and getting involved. Thank you for supporting live theater. Thank you for being part of something good. Thank you for doing something.
Last night was everything to me. I hope you're as happy as I am.
