Comic Turned Professor Coming to Calvin

February 20, 2004 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Calvin College will host Joanne Gilbert as part of Women's History Month at
3:30 pm on March 5 in the Meeter Center Lecture Hall.

She's an associate professor of communication at Alma College who formerly was
a professional stand-up comedian! She's got a book coming out called
"Performing Marginality: Humor, Gender and Cultural Critique."

See http://wsupress.wayne.edu/literature/humor/gilbertpm.htm

The book began as her doctoral dissertation and looks at what happens when
women or other minority groups perform stand-up comedy. The comics, she says,
earn rhetorical power by making jokes at the expense of the majority, the
paying members of the audience who laugh even as they are ridiculed.

But, she says, no matter how funny the joke at the end of the day the majority
still has the resources and political power. However, she believes the
rhetorical power that comes from stand-up comedy is a good place to start
changing that.

Gilbert began in stand-up comedy while working on her master's degree. She
took part in a local talent night and was recruited to perform in a major
comedy club. There she met famous comedians like Rosie O'Donnell who
encouraged her to take her act to New York City.

After two years as a professional stand-up comedian in New York, Gilbert
returned to the academic world, first teaching at North Carolina State
University for a year and then attending the University of Texas to earn her
doctorate.

-end-
Received on Fri Feb 20 16:14:18 2004