Book Comedians for a Law Firm Event

By hiring the right comedian(s). The best way to do that is to use a firm like The Ivy League of Comedy. Many of us are former lawyers. The founder, Shaun Eli, that’s me, isn’t an attorney, although everybody tells me that I should’ve gone to law school. I do find the study of law interesting, but I didn’t want to be a lawyer. N.B. I’m a rare comedian who has lawyer jokes that are pro-attorney. Also, law might be the most common prior profession of stand-up comedians. More than 10% of the comics in this group went to law school. I didn’t, but I did study business law at Wharton.

We even do shows for churches and synagogues, so we know what’s appropriate and what isn’t. We’ve been doing this a long time.

Yes, that’s us; The Ivy League of Comedy specializes in corporate events and we avoid politics, religion and dirty material.

We can customize our material for a law firm, but it’s really not necessary. Comedy is a break from work— you probably want us to change the subject. That said, many of us have jokes about the law (one of the favorite jokes I've written is about the Supreme Court). You don’t need a show terribly customized to you. We’ve learned that if one of our opening jokes is about the company or industry, and then later on we tell another one or two, the audience thinks the whole show was about them. The advantage of working with The Ivy League of Comedy is that we’ve been at this a long time and we’ve developed some wisdom.

Yes, The Ivy League of Comedy would be happy to book comedians for your summer associate event. How many ball games can you take them to? Not everybody loves baseball but everybody loves to laugh. We can also perform at firm retreats, partners’ meetings and holiday parties.

We can’t think of anything your clients would appreciate more than a comedy show, except maybe lowering your fees, and we don’t think that’s going to happen (and if it does, that’s on you, not us).

Yes, comedians from The Ivy League of Comedy are very experienced at emceeing events like awards dinners and Christmas, holiday and year-end parties.

Yes, comedians from The Ivy League of Comedy are happy to perform at your bar association dinner or annual meeting. One of my recent shows was for 200 attorneys in Boston.

Are there comedians who know how lawyers think? Well, I'm not an attorney but my track record is 1-0 in New York State Supreme Court (no, I wasn’t the defendant, I was the pro-se plaintiff suing a home improvement contractor, and they had a lawyer).

It’s a good story about my making the judge laugh, after doing my research. After the judge asked what I did for a living, he asked me to tell him a joke. I knew his political leanings, and I'd been writing jokes for a political website. So I told him one. He laughed and asked for another. Opposing counsel said "I heard a joke." I replied "Heard, or wrote? Because we don't want to suborn plagiarism." I wasn't sure I was using the word "suborn" correctly, but either way she was sunk. Also my briefs, which weren’t all that brief, were funny and sarcastic and pointed out a lot of flaws in the defense’s arguments. I had fun doing it.

Oh, more than 10% of my colleagues at The Ivy League of Comedy are former attorneys. And while I’m not an attorney I did write an article on attorneys who became comedians for the NJ Lawyer Magazine.

The same as for every other educated audience member, says Shaun Eli from The Ivy League of Comedy: Clever ones. We skip all the hacky, unoriginal lawyer-bashing stuff. Jokes that praise attorneys are uncommon so they get the laughs.

But if SCOTUS is at my show, the majority of them aren’t going to like my one SCOTUS joke.

The Ivy League of Comedy recommends against roasts, because most people really don’t like being made fun of, even if they act like they’re having fun when it happens. If the guest of honor specifically requests it, and we can have a private conversation with that person, we can put something together.

If it’s for a corporate event and it’s not the sole focus of the evening, The Ivy League of Comedy recommends 20-30 minutes. But it’s your show. We can make recommendations, but what do you want? (And we hope you trust our expertise)

If it’s the sole focus of the evening, like for client or employee entertainment, then maybe a 90 minute show with 3-4 comedians.

That’s easy. They probably have it. We don’t need any screens or projectors. Just a hand-held microphone (and a back-up mic) and a seated audience, preferably really close to us. A stage and stage lighting aren’t necessary but they do help, says Shaun Eli, the founder of The Ivy League of Comedy.

The Ivy League of Comedy can provide a single headliner, or a multi-act show. Note that we do not use inexperienced comedians. We’re all headliners, with at least 2 decades of stand-up comedy experience.

Yes, The Ivy League of Comedy’s comedians are very skilled at virtual shows.

We don’t offer comedy CLE programs, but you can hire one of our comedians as a fun break during a full or half day of CLE. For comedy CLE, this is something I thought about around 15 years ago. I spoke to a few attorney-comedians to ask if they wanted to work with me on this and they all said no, it was a lot to do and they were already busy enough as regular comedians. I thought about doing it myself, since I could teach accounting and finance. A friend of mine is a tax attorney but didn’t really know accounting, and I’d taught her all she really needed to know in about two hours. But it seemed onerous to get certified to do CLE. So instead we’re all concentrating our efforts on just being really funny.

You’re already here! You found The Ivy League of Comedy. We're all pro comedians, each with at least two decades of stand-up comedy experience, and several of us went to law school before disappointing our parents by leaving the law for the stage. Ask us any questions you have. We’re happy to talk to you, even though in our profession there’s no such thing as billable hours.

We recommend booking a comedian for a law firm event at least three months in advance, but if you have a last-minute need for a comedian call us at (914) 487-3866. Call, don’t text.

Well, you’re the lawyers so I assume you’ll actually read our contract. A lot of people don’t. It’s a nice contract. I’ve been told it’s funny. Just don’t be these people.

Questions to ask? The Ivy League of Comedy has a huge FAQ page but ask anything!

The cost of hiring a professional corporate comedian varies, depending on where, when, for whom and for how many. Daytime shows cost less than evening shows, and weekend evenings are more expensive. Our fee includes travel costs, to make it easy for you.

Ask us. We’re very responsive, and happy to answer your questions. If the first question is “How much?” we’ll pretty much just ask when, where, for whom and how many people, and quickly quote a price.