Gay Choreographer Comes Out... As Comedian

Comically inclined choreographer Jamie Benson joins forces with Peoples Improv Theater (PIT) to present Gay Stuff on May 15, 2018, from 10-11pm ($8 tickets). Benson, and his outsider comedic team, are debuting 3 sketches, 2 stand-up sets, and some sassy/stupid walks for the PIT's Striker main stage. Gay Stuff will dissect internalized homophobia, oppressive bro prerogative, and marginalizing gay cliches, but like, with dick jokes.

Debuting 2 sketches, Jamie Benson will present Gay-splainer, the new app for people who desperately need a bitchy best friend, and Avenue WTF, a couples counseling session that takes non-binary to a whole new level.

With the goal of bringing fresh funny bones to his team, Benson scouted for oddball creatives in local improv and sketch writing classes over the past 6 months. This new comic team originates from the...

• D.C. political scene
• modern dance landscape
• evangelical Christian world
• and more

Christine Driscoll, an environmental policy fugitive, will present Mother's Maiden Name, a performative rant about security password micro-aggressions. Experimental Bitch, Hannah Goldman, will present a stand up set and the sketch Safe Space, exhibiting bro culture as both endangered, and homoerotic- performed by an all female cast.

Bored with the pretense of hot moves and high art, Benson, steeped in both modern and commercial dance cultures, may be more of a comedy nerd than dance-lover. After attending a modern dance-based school in Seattle, and auditioning with sexy ass music video types in Los Angeles, Benson has felt continually miscast in his own life. This is the first time he's venturing away from dance to write, produce, and perform a purely comedic, live event.

Jamie Benson, proclaimed "one of the strongest, hottest contemporary dancers of his generation" by critic Lewis Segal, and "crazy" by The Dance Enthusiast's Christine Jowers, is a choreographer and Cornish College of the Arts drop out. Called "Chaplin-like" by Backstage West, Benson danced in LATC's Shag with a Twist, the film Rent, McDonald's Mario Art commercial, TV show Dance360 and Rudy Perez Ensemble. Described as "insightful and irreverent" by LA Weekly's Ann Haskins, Benson's lowbrow meets highbrow choreographic work has been presented at the Luckman Complex, Highways Performance Space, Bootleg Theater, NY Transit Museum, Triskelion Arts and Proctor's Theater. Jamie Benson has been featured in the New York and LA Times, Dance Magazine, Good Magazine, Phaidon Press' Wild Art, and awarded funding from the Brooklyn Arts Council. His films are official selections of the Cinedans Film Festival, 2015 Athens Video Dance Project, Video Danza Havana, and Bucharest International Dance Film Festival. Learn more at jamiebenson.com. Deemed "Best Improv Classes" by New York Magazine, the Peoples Improv Theater is dedicated to fostering the art of comedic theater through coursework in performance, professional writing and production. The theater presents original comedic shows seven nights a week; and a corporate and educational workshop program that offers team building, leadership, and business training.

The PIT was founded by Ali Reza Farahnakian in 2002, in a small black box theater located at 154 W29th Street. After outgrowing its original home, They moved to 123 E 24th Street on December 31, 2010, opening the PIT Striker and PIT Underground theaters. In 2015, the original PIT theater on W 29th Street was renamed The PIT Loft, officially becoming their third theater.