THE ARTS
Thursday, June 24, 2021 • The BuLLeTIn
GO! MAGAZINE • PAGE 11
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“That still turned out great, because you’d
be amazed what kind of energy 50 people
can bring,” he said. “And then when you
got a comic who hasn’t been on stage in a
month, what they bring — so that coming
together just makes it so much more beau-
tiful, so much more appreciative, and just
goes to show you how live entertainment is
just so powerful and just really needed.”
One place that has not seen or heard his
comedy in a while is Central Oregon. Lee
estimated his last visit was around 2006. His
comedy tends toward life, family, “and just
silly, stupid things that we don’t think about
until I say them,” he said. “I bring a lot of
things out there just to make people think
and laugh and let go, and just realize, ‘You
know what? It is OK, Boo Boo, it is OK.’
Especially at a live comedy show, because
this is adult humor, and I think it is time
for those adults to let loose and just laugh
at life.”
The Tower Theatre, meanwhile, will be
helping plug Central Oregonians back into
comedy via UnCabaret, a long-time comedy
and storytelling event based in Los Angeles.
Unlike Lee, UnCabaret founder and
host Beth Lapides (luh-PEE-des) really
didn’t have much of a problem with piv-
oting to Zoom. In fact, Vulture Magazine
has deemed the livestream “UnCab” events
among the best for comedy. The show
streams at 7:30 p.m. Sunday and features tal-
ent such as Julia Sweeney, formerly of “SNL,”
Hannah Einbinder, who stars on “Hacks” on
HBO Max, comedian Alex Edelman, a regu-
lar on “Conan,” and Alec Mapa, whose more
than 40 guest roles on shows such as “Ugly
Betty” and “Desperate Housewives” have
Submitted photo
Comedian Beth Lapides is the founder of Un-
Cabaret, a unique storytelling event with a long
history in Los Angeles.
If You Go
What: Comedian Carl Lee
Details:
• 7 p.m. Thursday at Open Space, 220 NE Lafayette Ave., Bend; $40 plus fees for a table for four
• 7 p.m. Friday at High Desert Music Hall, 818 SW Forest Ave., Redmond; $30 for a table for two, $40
for a table for four, plus fees
• 7 p.m. Saturday at Craft Kitchen and Brewery, 62988 Layton Ave., Suite 103, Bend; $30 for a table for
two, $35 for a table for three, $50 for a group table (seats eight), plus fees
Contact: bendticket.com
What: UnCabaret, presented in collaboration with the Tower Theatre
When: 7:30 p.m. Sunday
Where: Livestream
Cost: $15
Contact: towertheatre.org or 541-317-0700
earned him an unofficial title of “America’s
Gaysian Sweetheart.”
Change has been a constant of UnCaba-
ret, which has been going for 27 years, albeit
in different venues, occasional hiatuses and
other adjustments. The show is returning to
live events but will also keep its Zoom itera-
tions going, Lapides said.
One thing that has remained steady
through it all: comedians letting down their
hair and presenting stories and comedy in
more of an “If you weren’t there, you missed
it” manner. UnCab made for a much
looser style of comedy than the rehearsed
joke-telling in which comedians were ex-
pected to earn a laugh every seven seconds
(really) that was more prevalent at the time.
“Comedians were super-frustrated. They
were having to do tight 10s,” she said. “Ev-
eryone’s trying to get … their sitcom. The
way you got it was you developed this per-
fect 10 minutes. … It was really about per-
fection.”
The event that sparked UnCab was a
one-person show Lapides was doing at a
venue called The Women’s Club.
“They were laughing a little harder than
it really warranted — I knew how funny it
was,” Lapides said, laughing self-deprecat-
ingly. “I was like, ‘When was the last time
you guys laughed?’ They were like, ‘We
don’t go to comedy clubs. We’re women and
we’re artists and we’re lesbians, and when
we go to a comedy club, they make fun of
us.’
“So I said, ‘Well I’ll make you a show. It
will be un-homophobic. It will be un-mi-
sogynist. It will be un-cabaret.’”
Another prompt came when she had to
follow controversial comic Andrew Dice
Clay one evening at The Comedy Store, a
famous club in Los Angeles.
“I was hating him for doing his misogy-
nist material, I was hating the audience for
laughing at him, and I was hating myself
for hating everyone,” Lapides said. “I was
primed for trying to innovate.”
Early participants included Taylor Ne-
gron, Judy Toll, Janeane Garofalo, David
Cross and Bob Odenkirk. But it took a little
while to find a home and an audience.
“It was sort of conceived at The Women’s
Building, and then gestated at Highways
and sort of born at LunaPark,” Lapides ex-
plained, referring to venues it called home.
Once it hunkered down for a stretch at Lu-
naPark, “Slowly but surely, after a couple of
months, it really built a lot of momentum.”
“It was really at LunaPark where audi-
ences started to return with their friends.
This idea that it has to be new material ev-
ery time became the thing,” Lapides said.
“Intimacy was important to us, and conver-
sational comedy was important.”
In other words, a lot more like what mod-
ern comedy has evolved into.
Submitted
Comedian Alex Edelman is a regular on “Conan.”
“It’s much looser. Things have really
changed,” Lapides said. “Over the course of
UnCabaret, I mean, you can give me credit
for it. I won’t just take credit for it, but other
people have said that UnCabaret was cer-
tainly one of the forces that (changed things)
through persistence.”
e
David Jasper: 541-383-0349, djasper@bendbulletin.com
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