Dark humor brightens life in battered New Orleans By Ellen Wulfhorst
Mon Nov 20, 8:01 AM ET
A Hurricane Katrina evacuee walks up to a woman in a bar and says, "Want to go back to my place?"
"I'd love to," the woman replies.
"So would I," the man says.
In New Orleans, struggling to get back on its feet more than a year after Hurricane Katrina, stand-up comedy and satire are surging in popularity, as survivors of the storm turn to humor, the darker the better, to cope with their plight.
Navigating government bureaucracies, battling over insurance claims, and watching politicians roll out recovery plans that are never put into practice have all whetted what was always a large appetite for the ridiculous and the absurd.
Bigger-than-ever audiences attend comedy shows, residents are devouring humorous blogs and satirical newspapers and growing numbers of amateurs are trying stand-up routines, comics say.
"After the storm, I came back and wondered what kind of crowds we would get and what kind of mood they would be in," said Mike Strecker, who tells the joke about the evacuee's pickup line in his comic routine. "The crowds are larger, and they're so much more responsive.
"It's a release just waiting to happen," he said of the mood in his audiences who have returned since Katrina burst the New Orleans levees and flooded the city.
"BORN OUT OF FRUSTRATION"
Among the new additions to the comedy scene is a satirical newspaper, "The New Orleans Levee," with the motto: "We Don't Hold Anything Back."
The free paper pokes fun at politicians and officials who are supposed to lead the post-Katrina rebuilding effort, said publisher Rudy Vorkapic, 42.
"This isn't making fun of New Orleans. This is making fun of people who are failing New Orleans," he said. "This is born out of frustration."
The latest edition features a playful story on local Congressman William Jefferson explaining the $90,000 cash federal authorities found in his freezer as a "manufacturer's rebate" for buying the appliance.
Another article details a study showing that hurricanes did not strike New Orleans this year "because there was so little for them to do."
Launched this fall with a budget of just $5,000, the nascent newspaper is almost breaking even and attracting thousands of viewers to its online edition (http://nolevee.com), Vorkapic said.
Unlike comedy by professionals such as those in the televised "Comic Relief" benefit for Katrina on November 18, local humor is rooted in storm experiences, said Strecker, 43, who works in the communications department at Tulane University.
"Before the storm, if you had a tree fall in your front yard, you had a story to tell. Now when somebody asks, 'How did you do in the storm,' you say, 'Good, good, we got nine feet of water and we can't find Grandma, but we were blessed," he said.
Local comics make fun of everything from the rebounding crime rates to the tourists who take the so-called devastation tours of storm-ravaged neighborhoods.
"Comedy isn't the jokes," said comic Bill Dykes, 40. "It's your experience and how you tell it."
INTEREST IN AMATEUR COMEDY GROWING
The number of amateur comics showing up at "open-mike" nights has grown from a handful to dozens, said Dane Faucheux, 27, a local professional comic.
"Before Katrina, people would think, 'I can't get up before an audience,"' he said. "Now, who gives a crap? The storm made people start taking stock of their lives, and they say, 'I need to do the things I always wanted to do."'
Not that he finds the trend surprising, he added, in a city where T-shirts mock the initials of the New Orleans Police Department, with the slogan "Not Our Problem, Dude" and the Federal Emergency Management Agency with the slogan "Fix Everything, My Ass."
"We're a city who throws parties for funerals. That's how we deal with grief," said Faucheux.
Jarret Lofstead, who launched the irreverent, dark-humored blog, NOLAFugees.com (http://nolafugees.com/), after the storm, said the venture is attracting advertising dollars and 18,000 registered readers.
"In the face of all the absurdity that everyone who lives in this city deals with on a daily basis, it gives you a modicum of control if you can laugh at it," said the 31-year-old publisher. "That's why we've been having the success we've been having this year. Apparently it answers some call."
The interest in comedy has Dykes and Rodney Tate, 39, who moved to New Orleans after Katrina to build sewer lines, trying to open a full-time comedy club.
"It would be therapeutic for New Orleans," Tate said. "People need to laugh." |
