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| The Greenlight Bookstore, home of the Steamboat humor series |
Comedy gets greenlight at Brooklyn bookstore
By Carl UnegbuComedians and bookstores are not two things usually found together in the same sentence. But here they are: the Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood has created a special program for comedians and comedy writers. The program, called the “Steamboat Series,”premiered to a standing room-only audience. Actually the audience was larger than that. Some guests were sitting in a semi-circle around the microphone.
The literary humor series was designed as an evening forum for comic writers to showcase their work every third Thursday of each month. The first program, held on January 21 at 7:30 p.m., had a particularly strong cast, Tami Sagher from NBC’s “30 Rock,” Gabe Liedman from VH 1’s “Best Day Ever,” and Josh Lieb, a producer at “The Daily Show.”
Also on hand, were the series’ originator Scott Jacobson, a former writer at The Daily Show, who recently moved to a new writing job in Los Angeles, Jason Reich, another former writer from The Daily Show; and Bob Powers, a comedian who had produced a previous reading series in Manhattan’s East Village. With Jacobson’s departure to Los Angeles, Powers and Reich are the news hosts and curators of Steamboat.
For all its brilliance, the idea of launching the series was not something anyone connected with the event had even been planning to do until shortly before it all came together. Jessica Bagnulo, a co-owner of the newly opened Greenlight Bookstore, said it all started when a neighborhood volunteer, who at the time was wood staining the shelves, proposed the idea of a literary humor series to Bagnulo and her partner Rebecca Fitting.
That volunteer was Scott Jacobson, a former writer at The Daily Show. “The idea of the series sounded like a great fit for us!” said Bagnulo. “We gave Scott the go-ahead to pull in the talent, and decided to hold the series once a month.” Jacobson then got Powers and Reich involved and the rest was history.
But joining the cast of comedians at Steamboat is hardly a thing for rookies. By their own admission, the series’ organizers put a premium on actual experience onstage.
“Since we are coming from the comedy world we might end up booking people who have some experience being onstage, but we don’t have any requirements as far as years of experience or anything like that,” said Powers, who added that reading a comedian’s stuff somewhere or seeing them read at another show was the usual way the comedians came to the organizers’ attention.
Though Steamboat is open to all comedians, the bookstore’s location and the fact that the organizers live in the neighborhood obviously makes it easier for local Brooklyn talent to participate.
For the moment, the organizers are not looking too far into the future. “Two or three years is waaay beyond what we’re thinking about thus far,” said Powers. “No plans to expand beyond Greenlight either.”
But the momentum is definitely on and Steamboat is rolling on into next month and beyond.
Comedy Night, every third Thursday @ 7:30 p.m. at Greenlight Bookstore, 686 Fulton Street, Fort Greene, Brooklyn (718) 246-0200 (www.greenlightbookstore.com)