Church Comedy Night? Book The Ivy League of Comedy^sm, America’s top clean and appropriate standup comedians. Hire expert performers for all types of groups.

Nope. I’ll tell you what I say when The Ivy League of Comedy gets asked the same sort of question from synagogues. You don’t need to have only Jewish comedians for your temple. You probably don’t even want that. You spend a lot of your time around your family, your friends, your congregation— people you have a lot in common with. For a comedy show you want variety. You want to watch comedians who have a different background, different life experiences and maybe a completely different point-of-view.

Here’s a testimonial from a solo show I did at a church in Pennsylvania:

“Dear Shaun, Thanks so much for putting on such a great show at our church on Thursday afternoon. Everyone enjoyed it immensely! You are funny and you strive to make a connection with your audience. You asked questions beforehand to get an idea of the “personality” of your audience. You spoke about your Jewish heritage and upbringing. Then you made reference to the cross on the wall, which symbolizes a very important Jew to us. You very graciously held a question and answer session with us, at the end of your show. You also were so kind to stick around and talk with the two people in our group who are just starting out in comedy. You built a relationship with us and made us laugh.”

Thank you! Karen Schmidt, Deacon, Hampton Presbyterian Church

Our fee for non-profits is much, much lower than for-profit organizations. The cost depends on the night of the week (Friday and Saturday nights cost more than other nights), location (if we have to travel and stay overnight it's more expensive) and the mix of comedians. And also the size of the audience. If you want a ballpark number, figure $3000 to $3500 for three of us on a Saturday night if we can get back home by 1 AM. Staying overnight, or flying, add to the cost.

And most importantly, I’m not greedy. There are agencies that take most of the money for themselves and pay the comics very little. I’m a comic and I know that happens frequently. I don’t ever want to be one of those selfish greedy awful guys.

We generally like to quote a flat fee for our The Ivy League of Comedy shows because that makes it easier for you, even though it adds risk for us as airfares and hotel costs change. But it also avoids any sort of figuring out what the costs actually are, if a comedian is coming from, or going to, somewhere other than home. And sometimes comics want to stay with a friend even though we tell them we’ll pay for a hotel.

Oh, here’s another example of my lack of greed. I booked a comic for a charity gig. I paid for the airline tickets. Then she booked a comedy club gig for the next night and said she’d split the airfare with me. I said no, you got another gig, that’s great, let me just change the return date. I did have her cover the slightly higher cost for changing the ticket, but it was way less than half. She did the work to get more work and both of us were happy with that. Though I did appreciate her offer to split the airfare.

Yes, and yes. Some comedians don’t love virtual shows but those of us from The Ivy League of Comedy who spent the time and effort to figure out what makes them different and how to adapt to them have mastered virtual shows and we’re happy to do them.

That’s often a main concern. And it’s why I got into this business and founded The Ivy League of Comedy— people were saying “You’re clean but the other comics at the club weren’t. Where are the all-clean shows?” There weren’t any, so I started putting them together.

We do shows in churches and synagogues, including for some very devout audiences. We’ve been doing this a long time.

We’ve learned that there’s nothing inherently funnier about dirty or edgy comedy. Sometimes a curse word helps a joke, but if the joke can’t survive without it, it’s probably not a very good joke. Sometimes the laughter comes from the shock value of a dirty word or phrase rather than from something funny or clever. That’s not what we do.

We generally avoid politics (frankly it’s a terrible business decision to do political comedy unless you are sure you can specialize in it, because it makes the job a lot harder), and no, we’re not going to make fun of your faith.

Absolutely. A lot of our Ivy League of Comedy shows for charities and houses of worship are used to raise funds. Who doesn’t like to laugh? Contact us

We need a hand-held microphone (and a back-up mic, and if wireless an actual second mic, not just a battery pack). A stage and stage lighting are helpful, but if you don’t have stage lighting we can talk, before the performance, about how to light the room. Ideally the comedian should be lit from the front and the rest of the room should be dark. With any luck the light switches can make that happen (but sometimes the lights are either all on or all off, or they’re in rows). We’ll figure it out and make it work. If necessary you can rent or buy a spotlight, but those circumstances are rare. The Ivy League of Comedy wants to make it as easy as possible for you.

Most of us from The Ivy League of Comedy can. Please ask this before we hire someone. I once showed up at a charity gig and most of the way through the show they asked me to auction off a couple of items. I’d never done it before and frankly I was a bit nervous. But I came up with some jokes that worked well for the items being auctioned.

They had me auctioning off the items that nobody bid on in the silent auction, and they were quite happy with how it worked out. I think we sold all but one, and remember that these were items that nobody had bid on.

That depends on what you’re looking for. A full, 3-4 comedian Ivy League of Comedy show in a theatre is typically around 90 minutes. Plus, if you want post-show Q&A, however long that lasts. Sometimes it’s 3 questions. Our longest Q&A went on for around 45 minutes, but that’s not typical.

For a charity event, it depends. If the comedy is the main focus of the evening, and it’s 2-4 comedians, 90 minutes. If the evening also consists of speeches, workshops or other activities, then shorter.

We can make recommendations based on our knowledge and experience, but it’s your event. How long do you want it to be?

Typically The Ivy League of Comedy recommends at least three months in advance, but it depends on your event. If you have a last-minute need, call (don’t email or text) and we’ll see what we can do. In general we suggest that it’s not so much about us as about giving you enough time to market your event to your audience/subscribers/congregation/donors. And three months is good for that.

We’d love it if you can arrange the room for us, but we know the world doesn’t revolve around our performance. If you can, generally the stage should be along the long wall. The audience should be as close to the stage as possible (really, like starting at 3 feet) and the tables/chairs should be as close together as possible. Not spread around the room. We really want the audience up front and close together for The Ivy League of Comedy.

If you get there and there’s a lot of room upfront, don’t start moving the rows forward. That takes forever. Instead, take the back row of chairs and move it to the front. Then take the second-from-back row and make it the second row. Etc.

And please pay attention to sight lines. Everyone needs to be able to see the comedian. If some seats won’t be able to see the comedian if the comedian moves back and forth, please mention it. They may ask you to tape the stage to delineate where they shouldn’t go. That said, most of us don’t pace around much.

If your event requires a dance floor space in front of the stage, well, that’s not ideal but we’ll make it work. The comedian might choose to stand at the front of the dance floor instead of on the stage. Please make sure the mic cord is long enough to permit this, and that the lighting can accommodate it, if possible.

It’s nice to have someplace private and indoors to relax before the performance. For a house of worship it’s often the pastor’s study or office, or a library.

Expectations for food and beverages depend on the comedian. If the event is around dinnertime we probably want something to eat. Most of us in The Ivy League of Comedy aren’t that picky, and if you’re not serving food then we could see what’s available to be delivered. These days that’s almost anything. Certainly most of us want a couple of bottles of water (and not those tiny stubby ones).

A couple of us are vegetarian, vegan or gluten-free. One of us is on a no-carb diet. That’s pretty much it.

And a stool on stage, where we can put down the water, is useful.

For what it’s worth I don’t work with divas. I thought it was surprising when a comic asked for both sandwiches and a fruit and cheese platter backstage at a large event, but the venue had no problem with it. I ended up eating most of the cheese so I was glad she’d asked for it.

Sure, but please tell us in advance! I showed up at a show for a house of worship, planning to do material about driving. They happened to mention that a beloved member of the congregation had died in a traffic accident that morning. I’m glad they happened to mention it and of course I didn’t do those jokes. The comedians from The Ivy League of Comedy all have a lot of material to draw from- we’ve been at this a long time. Contact us

It’s your event, so you tell us. The Ivy League of Comedy aims to please. Comedians vary in what we wear on stage, so if you have specific requirements (coat-and-tie, black tie, no sneakers or t-shirts, or whatever) please tell us before hiring us. Every once in a while one of us has lost or put on weight, or is traveling and won’t be back home before the gig, and doesn’t want to get a call the day before saying “Oh, by the way, wear a suit.” Note that I’m a guy so this paragraph talks about men’s clothing. The same holds for the female equivalents.

The Ivy League of Comedy shows, like pretty much all stand-up comedy, is not for little kids, because they won’t understand the show and they’ll get bored. Best estimate is 14 and up, with the proviso that a 14 year old probably won’t appreciate the show as much as the adults will. But in general we try to avoid cultural references that only certain groups or ages will understand.