Comedy Studio Comic in Residence Interview -- Corey Manning

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The 11th Annual Roxbury Film Festival kicks of with Comedy Night at Slade's

The 11th Annual Roxbury Film Festival kicks off with Comedy Night tonight at Slade's Bar & Grill hosted by Jonathon Gates with Chris Tabb, Bethany Van Delft, and Orlando Baxter. Wednesday is also the night Gates hosts his Blakc Comedy Explosion, which will go on as scheduled tomorrow at 9PM with Washington D.C comic Eddie Bryant.

More on the Roxbury Film Festival, and the film Why We Laugh, which closes out the Festival on Sunday at the MFA.

Slades Bar & Grill
958 Tremont Street, Roxbury
Phone: 617.541.3900

Wendy Liebman in town tonight for benefit

Wendy Liebman came to Boston to study psychology, and left as a comedian. She was a student at Wellesley College in the 80s when she first started taking adult ed classes on stand-up and venturing out into a Boston scene populated by the likes of Brian Kiley, Jonathan Katz, Jimmy Tingle, and Don Gavin (whose delivery was influential on her own style of rapid fire delivery and throwaway lines).

Tonight, she’s back in town at the Regent Theatre for a benefit show for Community Works, which has been called “a portfolio of 32 local social justice organizations.” She’ll be joined by Tony V, Bill Braudis, Rich Ceisler, Chris Tabb, Jim Lauletta, and Jane Condon. I spoke with her by e-mail.

How did you get involved with charity for Community Works? “A portfolio of 32 local social justice organizations” sounds a bit confusing.

Community Works is like The United Way but local. The women who started it, Kip Tiernan and Fran Froehlich are the Mother Teresa's of our time. Money donated to this charity goes to help the homeless, the sick, the needy. I love this organization and I would do anything to help them.

What is your part in the documentary The Boys: The Sherman Brothers’ Story?

My husband and his cousin made a tribute film to their fathers, the composers who wrote a lot of family music (Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, "It's a Small World," and "You're Sixteen," to name a few.) The brothers worked together for over 50 years and yet they never really got along. The tag line for the movie is “Brothers, Partners, Strangers.” I got to speak on behalf of my mother-in-law, who passed away before the movie was made. If you get the chance to see it, you should -- it's a gorgeous movie and it will bring you back to your childhood.



How often do you get back to Boston?

About once a year! I will come back every year to do the benefit for Community Works for the rest of my life (you have it in writing).

Do you still see people here who watched you coming up?

Yes. And I still do some of my old jokes. I tell them to pretend they're watching time lapse photography.

Do you keep in touch with comics like Tony V, who’s also on the bill?

Yes, gotta love Facebook! That's how I approached the other comedians to be on the show!! (Tony V., Rich Ceisler, Bill Braudis, Chris Tabb, Jim Lauletta, and Jane Condon.) Jonathan Katz and I just did a piece for his radio show, "Hey, We’re Back."

What should we be looking for from you in the future? Are you working on an album or a special?

Next week I'll be a part of the Just for Laughs Festival in Chicago. I plan on recording my first DVD on my 50th birthday, Feb 27, 2011.

Corey Manning: Comedy for Community and Scene

Give Corey Manning credit for making the most out of his opportunities, for the benefit of local comedy and the community. This weekend, he is on the road with Vanessa Fraction (HBO’s Def Comedy Jam, Barbershop 2) and Eddie Bryant (P. Diddy’s Bad Boys of Comedy) in Maryland. All through the week, he’ll be playing shows with them in the New England area, including a Monday night benefit for the Lotus Foundation at the Comedy Studio also featuring Chris Tabb, Just Al, Big Moe, Lady Zain, and DJ Reason.

Fraction and Bryant are up-and-coming headliners that probably wouldn’t have a ready place to play in Boston if Manning hadn’t created the opportunity. He met both of them a couple of years ago at the Bay Area Comedy Festival, and has been in touch with them ever since trying to work out a schedule to bring them to Boston and to work with them on the road.

Manning is genuinely impressed with both comics, especially Fraction. (He’ll also join the two for shows at Catch a Rising Star in Providence, R.I. on Tuesday and Macumba’s in Mattapan on Thursday). “Vanessa Fraction is the next Monique, honestly,” he says. “I’m really honored to be on a show with her, because she has that strong a potential.”

Manning started out working Dick’s Beantown Comedy Vault in 2002 not long after moving to Boston from North Carolina in 2001. He hosted his own nights at the Vault and then moved on to the Emerald Isle with Tabb to co-host Big Funny Sundays. Now he books his own shows and co-hosts Wake Up Live on Touch 106.1 FM weekdays from 6 AM to 7 AM with Andrea “Drea” Baptiste, and works with local schools, creating after-school programs with his Laugh and Learn. (According to Manning, the Lotus Foundation, which Monday’s show benefits, is the fiscal agent for Laugh and Learn).

Manning will be bring Fraction and Bryant to local schools this week as part of the program. Monday and Tuesday, they’ll visit Young Achievers in Jamaica Plain, Wednesday they’ll be at the Boys and Girls Club in Dorchester, and Thursday they’ll be at Winthrop Elementary, also in Dorchester.

“We’re going to different schools just to speak to the students about different things like pursing your passions, respect, thinking about their future, and how what they did at the elementary age ties into what they do now,” says Manning.

For more detailed information and tickets, call Manning at (617)851-5246 or visit www.CoreyManning.com.