Cynthia Kaplan is a NYC based writer, musician and actress. She is the author of two acclaimed collections of comic essays, Why I’m Like This: True Stories, a Barnes & Nobel Discover Great New Writers book and a Booksense bestseller, and Leave the Building Quickly. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, New York Magazine, The Week, Playboy and the Huffington Post among many other publications. She wrote and produced for Andrea Rosen’s Take Me to Your Mother on Nickelodeon (including the theme song), and for A & E Biography. She co-wrote the comic short This Won’t Hurt a Bit for Morgan Spurlock’s We the Economy. Kaplan has appeared in many plays and some films, including the indie darlings Work; Pipe Dream, which she co-wrote; and Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same. Kaplan’s songs have won national and international song contests, her music videos have appeared in comedy film festivals, and she has written jingles for commericials and theme songs for TV shows. She plays regularly in clubs and music venues throughout the country with her band, The Cynthia Kaplan Ordeal. Their first album, Fangry, shot to #8 katrillion on the pop charts. Kaplan co-hosts the monthly comedy show Lean Over with comedian Karen Bergreen and tours regularly with Sean Altman of Jewmongous. She has never appeared on Law & Order. read more

Jaye McBride is funny, smart and proudly transgender. Jaye has traveled the world performing stand-up comedy both as a headliner and sharing the stage with comedy greats like Aziz Ansari, Gilbert Gottfried, Jim Norton & Bobcat Goldthwait. Jaye has also been a part of The Boston Comedy Festival, The Maine Comedy Festival and the She Devil Comedy Festival.

In addition to stand-up, Jaye has written, produced and acted in a variety of short films. When not performing on-stage or on-screen Jaye writes “The Comedy Blog” for the Times Union and speaks at colleges all across the country with her lecture about being transgender. Having transitioned in 2007, Jaye is uniquely qualified to talk about awkward first dates, strained family relationships and self-acceptance. read more

Ali Clayton has been performing stand-up for 6 years and can be seen all around Chicago talking about her favorite things; her southern family, working with kids and adults with special needs, and her bisexual experiences. Ali’s solo show “I’m Different, Not Dumb” has been featured at the NC Comedy Arts Fest, Chicago Sketch Comedy Fest, and Chicago Women’s Funny Fest.

After seeing “I’m Different, Not Dumb” the Chicago reader called her a “charismatic performer” and the internationally renowned art blog Art F City mentioned “What Am I Looking At?”; an art review web series hosted by Ali. Watch Ali with some of her favorite comics give their opinions of art at Chicago art gallery openings http://channelwaila.tumblr.com. read more

Patrick Monahan is a comedian and writer living in New York City. Since 2014, he has been performing all over New York City at venues such as New York Comedy Club, The Creek and the Cave, and Eastville Comedy Club, as well as numerous independent comedy shows. In 2017 he appeared at Hell Yes Fest. His interview with stars Ari Graynor and Michael Angarano was a featured part of Showtime’s promotion of its series “I’m Dying Up Here”.  Patrick runs a weekly comedy showcase on Fridays at Karma Lounge in the East Village, and co-hosts the popular comedy podcast What A Time To Be Alive. read more

NYC-based stand up comedian, writer, TV personality, pod-caster
I’ve been on Comedy Central’s “Roast Battle” and was a correspondent on The CW’s “ATX Uncensored(ish)”. I make fun of movies with Master Pancake Theater and co-host three podcasts, What A Time To Be Alive, Wrestlesplania, and Lie, Cheat, & Steal. Click the links above or scroll to check out my work!

Eli is a writer on the Maude sketch team Roanoke. In addition to sketch writing, Eli performs stand-up comedy all over New York City and other places when they allow him. He started comedy while at college in Ann Arbor, Michigan, during which time he won the “MI Favorite Comic” competition for best student comedian, as well as opening for Russell Brand at Eastern Michigan University. He’s performed in the Brooklyn Comedy Festival, as well as the Bridgetown Comedy Festival in Portland, Oregon. In addition to his personal twitter account at @eliyudin, he co-created the parody twitter account @NotTildaSwinton, which got over 45,000 followers in just 5 days. He sleeps what some people would call “an alarming amount.” read more

​Morgan is an anchor/MMJ at WMTV in Madison. She’s a 4x Chicago-Midwest Emmy nominated journalist who is exceptionally talented at writing, shooting, and editing on deadline.

Morgan has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Professional Journalism from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. She was mentored by respected journalist through internships with KARE, WCCO, and KSTP.

Halfway through a PhD in physics at Cambridge University, Ben met Alexander Armstrong (who was also studying there) in 1992. Instead of finishing his PhD, Ben chose to scrap science for comedy and started playing at the Comedy Club Footlights, Cambridge. After four years of touring pubs and underground comedy clubs, the pair appeared on ‘Saturday Night’ as (now one of their most well-known sketches) Euro-Rock duo ‘Strijka.’ The year 1996 saw the pair nominated for the Perrier Award and were given their first commissioned series, The Armstrong and Miller Show (1997). Broadcast first on the Paramount Channel, which was then followed by three further series shown on Channel Four (1997, 1999 & 2001). Ben and Alexander took “The Armstrong and Miller Show” on tour in November 2001 and did a 17-day back-to-back stint. The success of “Armstrong and Miller” (1997)_ gave Ben a springboard to work on other projects. _Passion Killers (1999)_ and The Blind Date (2000) are just two of the television films that enabled Ben to go more mainstream and show that he is capable of straight acting as well as his cheeky-chappy side shown in The Armstrong and Miller Show (1997). Ben is not shy of the big screen either. August 2001 saw the release of Steve Coogan’s: The Parole Officer (2001), in which Ben played small-time criminal Colin; in 1999, he starred alongside Ray Winstone and Robert Carlyle in the comedy drama_ There’s Only One Jimmy Grimble (2000)_. Most people may not recognize Ben as the voice of ITV’s Digital Monkey that stars alongside fellow comedian Johnny Vegas in the infamous adverts, which has led to a wad of merchandise and a string of 15-minute programs yet to be shown. March 2002 saw Ben as a snotty hotel concierge in Jez Butterworth’s film Birthday Girl (2001). With further future projects lined up for 2002 (including a six-part series called The Book Group(2002), to be shown later on), only time will tell if the 35-year-old will remain underground or leap out into the mainstream audience. read more

Mary Beth Barone is a Manhattan-based comedian, improviser, and actor. She performs stand-up all over the country at venues like Gotham Comedy Club, the Upright Citizens Brigade (on both coasts), and The Lincoln Lodge in Chicago. Her stand-up has been (accurately) described as dark post-modernism and ingeniously self-aware by TimeOut NY.

Mary Beth has a monthly stand-up residency at PUBLIC hotel in New York City, with her collaborator Michael Cruz Kayne, which has been featured in The NY Times and NY Magazine. Her half hour performances sold out at both Union Hall and the Duplex. Mary Beth is not only growing her hair out–she has produced, written, and starred-in over 30 web videos since 2016 including the sketch series Double Homicide, and the acclaimed short film Mary Beth’s Sex Tape. She currently hosts/produces the podcast Mildly Offensive and was featured in Viceland’s comedy docuseries, Funny How? She has also been in videos for PureWow and Betches. read more

Keren Margolis is a New York-based comedian and writer who performs at venues throughout the city. Keren has appeared on Inside Amy Schumer and is a regular on Race Wars podcast, as well as the co-host of her own podcast, Unhireable.