Returning on Saturday, September 14th, on the iconic Bay Street Theater stage will be Paul Anthony’s Ha Ha Hamptons, featuring female comedians Laura Patton, Talia Reese, Kendra Cunningham, and Carie Karavas. The show’s creator, Paul Anthony, spoke with Hamptons.com about the unique format for the four female headlining comedians.
Paul Anthony is a comedian from Massapequa. Known throughout the NYC metropolitan area as a top-notch stand-up comedian. He has had a relationship with Bay Street that started in 2018 when as he said, “They knew about my comedy festival shows up island. I had never done anything in the Hamptons, so (with Bay Street) we launched a special Hamptons version of our comedy festival, and it’s called the Ha Ha Hamptons Comedy Tour.” Mr. Anthony said, “this will be the second tour featuring three to four shows a year in Spring and the Fall.” He has two shows coming up, September 14th and October 26th. Anthony promises both shows will feature, “All new lineups of top comedians from around the country.”
Anthony said, “We are bringing out a level of talent you will never see on one stage. You are never going to see these four (Laura Patton, Talia Reese, Kendra Cunningham, and Carie Karavas) in one show. You may see them as individual comedians headlining shows but you will never see all four of them on one stage.” Adding, “We present our shows in a showcase format.” He implied that means it’s not the typical M/C middle-act, headliner format that you’ll see at most venues. Mr. Anthony pointed out that Talia Reese has been featured in the Daily News, and her jokes often appear on the NY Post’s Page Six. Kendra Cunningham appeared on Saturday Night Live, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and Last Comic Standing. Vegas regular Carle Karavas was also featured on the sitcom Kevin Can’t Wait as well as Comedy Central. Laura Patton, a Long Island Comedy scene star, has recently been getting booked in Las Vegas.
He explained that the only time one might possibly see a showcase of this caliber is at “… the top comedy clubs in Manhattan during the week when these comedians are working on new material.” In that spirit, Mr. Anthony will present his top comedians doing shorter sets on Bay Street because of the time constraints.
He mentioned, “When we first launched the Hamptons Comedy Tour, it was a big thrill because the show sold out at Bay Street Theater very quickly, and that was a real thrill for us.” Mr. Anthony last year also taught a comedy class at Bay Street with 12 students, none of who had ever performed standup comedy, and five weeks after working with them in a class once a week for two hours, he said, “I helped them develop standup with their own material.” Eventually, the class did a one-hour show with each student doing 5 minutes of original material. Mr. Anthony said he and Bay Street will offer the class again starting in October. “Doing this class was a huge thrill for me.” He said he had all different age groups including folks who had stand-up on their bucket lists.
These shows sell out fast so as Mr. Anthony mentioned, enquire about getting seats now, don’t wait until the last minute, these shows are side-splitting evenings, with available cocktail seating on the actual ground level stage.
