“I love to laugh,” says psychology professor and former Woodstock, NY, councilman Chris Collins, who is a fan of the ancient Greek comedic playwright Aristophanes. “He was satirical, not afraid to crack on almost anybody. His life was threatened by the government several times, and he always got off—he was gutsy.”
Like the Greek author of The Frogs and Lysistrata, Collins brings humor to bear on the human condition as he organizes the first Woodstock Comedy Festival, a benefit for Family of Woodstock and the Polaris Project against human trafficking. Headliners of the September 20-21 event will be “Sex in the City” star Mario Cantone, standup comic Bobcat Goldthwait, and iconic talk-show host and funnyman Dick Cavett.
“As I was growing up, the anxiety and absurdity of the world were two major themes in my life,” mused Collins, sitting his Bearsville yard on a sunny afternoon. “There was World War II and the wars that followed, blackouts, the fears of childhood—what if someone’s going to bomb America? Laughter is a way of dealing with anxiety.”
Teaching at SUNY Ulster, Collins likes to warm up a class with a little amateur standup. When he shifted from full-time teaching to a part-time adjunct position ten years ago, he decided to satisfy his political urge by starting a local chapter of Amnesty International. Of his four years on the town council, Collins remarked, “I enjoyed some of it, being able to accomplish some things for the town.”
After his council service, “I wanted to do something smashing, something exciting, not just live a boring old man’s life. I tapped into an idea I had carried for years, of doing comedy. I’m not a professional entertainer, but I’ve always been thrilled watching them. I thought it took a lot of courage to do what they did.”
But he wasn’t out to make money, said Collins, and he decided the project should be a benefit. “I’ve done a lot of research over the years, and I found that many of the victims in society are women and children.” He had read Nicholas Kristof’s New York Times columns on human trafficking, and Kristof’s book, Half the Sky, describing the industry in which young women are bought and sold as sex slaves. “People think of East Asian countries,” noted Collins, “but they don’t think of California, Georgia, where big coastal cities have trafficking too. It shook me to my roots, the terrible things that go on in the world.”
Tempted to give in to depression, he decided instead to do something about the problem. When he first moved to Woodstock in the 1970s, he had volunteered for Family of Woodstock for seven years, so he knew the organization had an excellent family program and hotline, dealing with women’s issues close to home. On a national level, he discovered the Polaris Project, started in Washington, DC, by two college students in 2003. The group maintains a hotline for trafficking victims and lobbies state legislatures to pass laws that will protect rather than punish young girls who have been forced into prostitution, radically changing how police approach victims of sex trafficking.
With his beneficiaries established, Collins began, in 2010, the arduous process of establishing a not-for-profit corporation, dealing with the IRS, the Attorney General’s office, the Charities Bureau, and the Supreme Court. He was granted approval by the IRS on Valentine’s Day of 2011.
To recruit talent, he started with Eddie Brill, David Letterman’s audience warm-up and comedy talent coordinator, as well as an internationally known standup comedian. Collins has a friend whose son grew up with Brill and made the introduction. “He’s even funny on the phone,” reported Collins. “He gives off friendliness and warmth, but he’s also super-professional—he knows comedy.”
Next he contacted Josh Ruben, who grew up in the Woodstock area and is the son of former Onteora High School principal Barbara Ruben. The 30-year-old has made a name for himself on the CollegeHumor website, acting and directing in their comedy videos, and on the CollegeHumor TV show and other TV programs. “Josh and I got into a long talk,” said Collins. “He’s an affable, warm, lovely guy, laid back but very professional.”
Through their extensive contacts, Brill and Ruben brought in other volunteers, many of them from New York City, to help staff the fledgling organization. Linda Corradina, producer of Martha Stewart Living, is producing the festival. Collins credits Brill with getting over the threshold to reach Dick Cavett. “It took months of phone calls back and forth,” he said, but Cavett finally signed on.
Best known for his TV interviews with celebrities such as John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Cavett will find the tables turned when he is interviewed by Goldthwait in “Stand Up and Sit Down” on Saturday night, September 21, at the Bearsville Theater.
Actor, screenwriter, director, and standup comedian Bobcat Goldthwait grew up in a working-class family in Syracuse. Known for his dark humor and political satire, Goldthwait has appeared in such movies as Police Academy and Scrooged and has directed several independent films.
Also on Saturday night, Mario Cantone and his band will present comedy and music at the Bearsville Theater. Cantone played a gay wedding planner on Sex in the City and appeared on Broadway in his Tony-nominated one-man show Laugh Whore. He has done Shakespeare at the Public Theater in Manhattan and warmed up the audience for jazz great Shirley Bassey at Carnegie Hall.
Other festival events include a Friday night variety and talk show at Woodstock Playhouse with Scott Rogowsky, Rick Overton, Brill, and other guests, followed by a CollegeHumor Live! presentation. Panel discussions on Saturday will cover comedy animation and casting in comedy, plus Cavett and Brill heading up a panel on late-night comedy writing.
Sunday afternoon, Upstate Films will host screenings of a documentary about comedy improv and Goldthwait’s film Willow Creek, both with Q & A. That evening’s shows at the Colony Cafe include sketch comedy with the Upright Citizens Brigade and standup by local comedians including Audrey Rapoport, Verna Gillis, and others.
“My ultimate goal is to link up with comedy festivals globally,” said Collins. “Next year, we might connect with say, the Montreal, Edinburgh, and Miami festivals. Most of them are for-profit, but we’ll ask them to dedicate one night of comedy to our charities, to increase awareness globally and help victims overcome the situations they’re in.”
He added, “I’ve had a lot of dreams in my life, but I like to follow the ones that can happen—the dreams that are based in reality, like this one.”
The Woodstock Comedy Festival will run September 20-21. Tickets are on sale through www.woodstockcomedyfestival.org.