Comedy takes a stand against homelessness

Local organizations brought together comedy and social awareness Saturday with “Bloomington, Stand Up!” at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.

Audience members laughed their way through the evening of stand-up by Scott Dunn and headliner Drew Hastings.

The event was the culmination of National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness
Week and was a collaborative effort by members of Shalom Community Center, Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard, Stepping Stones and Martha’s House, Inc. Each organization is a nonprofit group that deals with these issues in some way. Proceeds from the event went to benefit the organizations.

“The idea was kind of to model it after Comic Relief,” said Jennifer Phillips, event planning committee member, referring to a poverty-aid organization founded in 1985 to “use comedy and laughter to raise money and change lives,” according to its Web site.

After a reception for the audience, Joel Rekas, Shalom’s executive director, thanked everyone for their support and introduced Dunn, a regular on the “Bob & Tom Show.” A Fort Wayne native, Dunn mentioned a USA Today article proclaiming his hometown the dumbest city in the United States.

“Fortunately, it was in a newspaper, so none of us knew,” he said.

Dunn described birthing plans as a way for women to boss around their husbands when they’re in too much pain to do so themselves and said married couples fight mainly about sex and money.

“My wife and I are lucky. We don’t have either, so there’s nothing to fight about,” he said.

After finishing his set, Dunn introduced Hastings.

From roadkill – “How many of those animals are suicides?” – to sexual orientation, Hastings kept the audience laughing, particularly with tales of adjusting to life on his farm in Ohio after many years in Los Angeles.

“I lived there three months before I realized that red stick on my mailbox wasn’t some sort of country 911 system,” he said.

He told the audience that “next of kin” is the only hillbilly legal term in existence and mentioned a hayride he took with his girlfriend where people were smoking.

“We’re just human tinder on the hayride to Hades,” Hastings said. “(I) spent the entire ride looking for compatible skin donors.”

Brooke Gentile, executive director of Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard, said she was happy about the turnout of about 300 people.

“It’s definitely a successful fundraiser,” she said, adding that she enjoyed both comedians. “This is my first comedy show, and I had a great time.”