Comedian Kayla Pulley is tired of the open mike scene in Chicago. As a black woman, she doesn’t always feel very welcome or even safe in the predominantly white, male environment. Even after years of proving herself on stages around the city, she would too often find herself walking into a room and being completely ignored by comedians she saw every day. She would call out the problems with open mikes in the city on stage to zero response. No one seemed to want to do the work of acknowledging performers of color. It got so bad that she quit doing stand-up.
While this space was created to give women of color opportunities to perform, it’s in no way exclusionary. Preference is given to women of color, but everyone is invited to sign up for the open mike and offer support from the audience. Pulley hopes what she and her cohosts are doing with Lemonade Stand can serve as a model for how other rooms are run. Everyone needs to come together to upend toxic open-mike culture, she says, and increase the diversity among performers on Chicago stages.
Sat 3/30, 7 PM, Playground Theater, 3209 N. Halsted, theplaygroundtheater.com, $5 suggested donation.
