826 Valencia presents its 6th Annual Comedy Night March 29, 2008

*An Evening of a Thousand Scowls*
826 Valencia presents its Sixth Annual Comedy Night

stellar cast of comedians delivers comedy at its bluest
for a good cause

Featuring:
Bobby Lee, TIG Notaro, Al Madrigal, Jonathan Coulton, Ian Edwards, Davy Rothbart, plus additional guests to be announced

Everett Middle School Auditorium
Saturday, March 29, 2008, 7:00 PM (Doors open at 6:00 PM)
450 Church Street (between 16th and 17th Streets), San Francisco, CA
Tickets: $30–40
VIP tickets: $75
Premium tickets: $250
Tickets available through Ticketweb: www.ticketweb.com
Or, call (866) 468-3399
Adults only (18 and over)
All proceeds go toward 826 Valencia’s free student programming
and the 826 Writers’ Room at Everett Middle School.

San Francisco, CA, February 25, 2008—826 Valencia is proud to announce its Sixth Annual Comedy Night fundraiser, featuring Bobby Lee, TIG Notaro, Al Madrigal, Ian Edwards, Jonathan Coulton, Davy Rothbart, plus additional guests to be announced.
Now in its sixth year, 826 Valencia’s Comedy Night has established a reputation for impressive lineups and side-splitting laughs. According to Dave Eggers, acclaimed author and 826 co-founder, “In past years, I’ve said some sort of blandly cheerleady things about Comedy Night, but this year I’ll be more candid: Comedy Night, though benefiting a tutoring and writing center for young people, is a pretty sordid affair. The comedians tend to work blue (very blue), and the audience, deviants all, laps it up It’s all pretty sick, but it raises a lot of money for 826.”
Fans of comedy, children, philanthropy and literature alike are encouraged to attend and witness one of the year’s funniest charitable events. On this special evening, laughing at lowbrow (and highbrow) humor benefits the greater good, as the show’s proceeds directly fund student writing and tutoring programs at 826 Valencia. In past years, the event has sold out all 1,400 seats at Everett Middle School. This year’s lineup is perhaps the funniest yet, and tickets are expected to sell out again.
Premium tickets, which cost $250, guarantee the best seats in the house and include a gift bag. VIP seats cost $75, offer the next best seats in the house, and include a Comedy Night poster. All other seats range from $30 to $40.
About the Performers:

Jonathan Coulton is a folk rock singer-songwriter. A graduate of Yale and former member of the Yale Spizzwinks(?), he is now the Contributing Troubadour at Popular Science magazine as well as the Musical Director for The Little Gray Book Lectures. His work has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered and The Daily Show. Coulton’s discography includes Smoking Monkey, Where Tradition Meets Tomorrow and Our Bodies, Ourselves, Our Cybernetic Arms.

Ian Edwards is a stand up comedian who performs weekly at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles. His television appearances include Late Night With Conan O’Brien, Live at Gotham, and HBO’s Bad Boys of Comedy, Def Comedy Jam, and Show Time at the Apollo. He’s written for Saturday Night Live, MTV’s Lyricist Lounge and the Cartoon Network’s The Boondocks. He is currently a cast member of the fifth season on Punk’d on MTV.
Bobby Lee officially joined the cast of MADtv in 2001. As a feature performer on the show, his memorable characters include Hideki the “Average Asian,” an Asian American who is constantly pestered by others who stereotype him based on his ethnicity, and the Blind Kung-Fu Master, a blind martial arts master who usually foils his missions. In addition to MADtv, Lee’s television appearances include The Tonight Show, Premium Blend, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Lee has also appeared in films such as Killer Pad, The Slanted Screen and Kickin’ It Old Skool.

Al Madrigal has turned a flair for storytelling into a standing as one of the Bay Area’s favorite stand-up comedians. He has appeared on The Late Late Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live and Premium Blend and was the Jury Award winner for Best Stand-Up Comedian at the 2004 HBO Aspen Comedy Festival. His ability to mix improv into his stand-up sets landed him the lead role on the series The Ortegas and Welcome to the Captain. He is the founder of 826 Valencia’s Comedy Night.
TIG Notaro is a stand-up comedian and star of the series Comedy Central Presents TIG. She has appeared on Comedy Central’s The Sarah Silverman Program, Premium Blend, Comedy Central Presents, Jimmy Kimmel Live and was a contestant on Last Comic Standing in 2006. She is also a producer for ZeroDollarsandZeroSenseProductions, which she and producing partner Beth Schorr started in 1999. TIG has performed at numerous showcases and festivals internationally, including Comedy Central’s Laugh Riots national stand-up comedy competition, the Chicago Comedy Festival, the Boston Comedy Festival and the Kilkenny Comedy Festival in Ireland.
Davy Rothbart is the creator of Found magazine, a publication of discarded notes, letters, photos, lists, and drawings found and sent in by its readers. The magazine spawned a best-selling series of books, Found: The Best Lost, Tossed, and Forgotten Items from Around the World. Rothbart has appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman and is a regular contributor to This American Life. He is the author of The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas, a collection of short-stories, and has written for The New York Times, GQ, The Believer, SLAM Magazine, and The Sun. Geffen Records recently released Rothbart’s documentary film How We Survive about the punk rock band Rise Against.
About 826 Valencia:
826 Valencia is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write. Its services are structured around the belief that great leaps in learning can happen with one-on-one attention and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success. In its fifth year, 826 Valencia currently provides drop-in tutoring, after-school workshops, in-schools tutoring, help for English language learners and assistance with student publications. Drawing from a volunteer base of more than 1,000, which includes many teachers, writers and journalism professionals, 826 Valencia unites eager students with eager helpers. All of 826 Valencia’s programs are challenging and enjoyable, and ultimately strengthen each student’s power to express ideas effectively, creatively, confidently and in his or her individual voice. 826 Valencia’s pirate store serves as a gateway to the community and offers all of its proceeds in support of student programming.

Official Website: http://www.826valencia.org/comedy/