Ladies of Laughter

LADIES OF LAUGHTER

Saturday, October 7, 2023 @ 8^pm

For over twenty years, Ladies of Laughter has served as a launching pad for female comedic talent, with past participants ranging from Amy Schumer to Melissa Rauch. Buy your tickets soon because these ladies typically sell out!

Jocelyn Chia

The 2016 “Newcomer” winner, Jocelyn Chia is a lawyer turned comedian originally from Singapore. She is a regular at most of the New York City comedy clubs including the Comedy Cellar, Gotham and Carolines, and has been featured in Vulture, Vice, Her World, South China Morning Post, and CNBC.com. She has also been named one of Singapore’s top comedians by Buro and Best in Singapore. Jocelyn has been a guest comedian on the Howard Stern Channel of Sirius XM, and a guest host on MTV. She made her standup television debut on AXS TV’s “Gotham Comedy Live,” hosted by William Shatner, and taped her second “Live at Gotham” in 2019. She is the 2016 Newcomer winner of the Ladies of Laughter Competition and received the “Rising Star Award – Comedy” at the Asian American Television and Film Festival, and has appeared in Comedy Central’s “Stand-up, Asia!”

Marla Schultz

Marla Schultz is a Manhattan based standup comedian, speaker and actress. An advocate for mental health awareness, Marla’s motto blends comedy and therapy; “Saving lives one punchline at a time.” She’s also been featured in the documentaries The Big Talk Over Dinner and the soon-to-be-released You’re Gorgeous, I Love Your Shirt: A Look Inside the Crisis of Bullying and Mental Health.

Marcela Onyango

The most recent Ladies of Laughter Newcoming runner-up, Onyango was born in Kenya and moved to Texas when she was 12 years old; she now resides in Brooklyn.  Her pilot, Trying to Live, was a second rounder in the 2021 Sundance Episodic Lab and a semifinalist in the BlueCat screenplay competition.  She has been featured in the Black Women Comedy Festival, Red Clay Comedy Festival, and at the Apollo Comedy Club.

Sara Contreras

Sara Contreras, a top female comedian, actor, and writer since 1995—and one of Showtime’s 2008 ALMA-nominated (Best Comedy Special) Original Latin Divas of Comedy. Sara has performed for the troops in Iraq as part of the USO tour. She has been tapped to open for El Gran Combo De Puerto Rico, the iconic salsa band, in 2022 for their 60th-anniversary world tour. She was selected as one of the 22 top Comedians to watch in 2022. Her hilarious one-woman show, F.R.E.A.K. of Nature is premiering in 2022 around the country.  Sara was a featured radio personality for the WRKS 98.7 Kiss Morning Show and has been a featured comedian for nationally syndicated radio personalities Luis Jimenez and Wendy Williams. Sara has performed at the New York Comedy, Marshalls Women in Comedy, Urban Comedy, and the Toyota Comedy Festivals.