About Laughing Liberally

Laughing Liberally is a comedy show which uses humor and laughter to spread understanding of liberal ideas and advance progressive values. Showcasing the brightest progressive comedians from all across the nation in an off-Broadway show in New York City and on a national tour, Laughing Liberally will save democracy one laugh at a time.

What does it mean to be a liberal?

If you believe that we are all better off working together than we are going it alone; if you dream of broad prosperity rather than consolidated wealth and power; if you support proactively creating opportunities and tools by which everyone in society can succeed; if you embrace a world that is increasingly diverse and tolerant; if you understand that innovation, creativity, science and the varied strengths across people and communities can improve quality-of-life throughout the world while developing a sustainable future for generations to come; if you are devoted to individual respect and dignity; if you celebrate that which we share -- our common resources, our public institutions, our dreams and aspirations -- and wish to protect and preserve these bonds to strengthen all society...then you are a liberal.
Who is behind Laughing Liberally?

Laughing Liberally is a project of Living Liberally, which builds progressive communities through social networks and events. Living Liberally also runs Drinking Liberally, the national network
of progressive social clubs; Screening Liberally, a series of
socially-conscious films; Eating Liberally, events with good gab and great grub; and Reading Liberally, book tours for progressive authors. Living Liberally is a New York-based LLC, led by a team in NYC and fueled by the energy of hundreds of volunteers and partners around the country.

Laughing Liberally Directors:

David Alpert is an innovator in the field of community building through technology and progressive politics. He is a director of Cosmopolity, a grassroots political organization that promotes progressive action through social interaction, and Drinking Liberally, a national network of over 100 progressive social clubs. In 2004, Alpert founded IPac, a political action committee promoting the public interest through balanced intellectual property policy, and CopyNight, a national network of social gatherings around copyright policy issues. He works as a Product Manager at Google, Inc. and is a graduate of Harvard University.

Katie Halper is a comedian, documentary filmmaker, and activist from New York City's Upper West Side, who has worked as development director for DCTV, a non-profit media education center and documentary production house, and coordinated living wage and labor campaigns in NYC and Florida. She was associate producer of Estela Bravo's documentary film Free to Fly, about restrictions on travel between Cuba and the U.S. She co-produced Tim Robbins' film Embedded, based on his play of the same name, about media coverage of the war in Iraq, and served as outreach director for the documentary The Take, a film by Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis about the workers' movement in Argentina. Katie's documentary La Memoria es Vaga (Memory is Lazy), about historical memory in post-Franco Spain, has been screened in film festivals throughout Spain and the U.S. and will premier on Spanish television this November. Katie is an Artistic Director of The Tank, a space for performing and visual arts and public affairs programming in midtown Manhattan. Katie performs comedy throughout the city, and hosts the monthly Tank presentations of Laughing Liberally and her own show Red Diaper Baby Presents. Katie is a graduate of Wesleyan University.

Justin Krebs is a political entrepreneur, organizer and advocate based in New York City. He is a founder of Drinking Liberally, a national network of Democratic social clubs, and Cosmopolity. Additionally, he is a founder and artistic director of The Tank, a space for performing and visual arts and public affairs programming in midtown Manhattan. In politics and advocacy, Justin has managed a citywide parks campaign; worked as a producer on Speak Up New York, a youth civic engagement initiative and Emmy-nominated PBS program; authored Grounds for Play, a history of NYC's playgrounds; and served in the office of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. Justin is a New Jersey native, graduate of Harvard University, and resident of Hell's Kitchen. Justin is also the son of veteran producer Eric Krebs.

Eric Krebs, producer of LAUGHING LIBERALLY, is the founder of Off-Broadway's John Houseman and Douglas Fairbanks theatres. On Broadway he produced Bill Maher: Victory Begins at Home, Neil Simon's The Dinner Party, It Ain't Nothin' But The Blues (nominated for 1999 Tony Award for Best Musical), and Electra starring Zoe Wanamaker. Off-Broadway he produced Langston Hughes's Little Ham, The Capitol Steps, the world premiere of Bash by Neil LaBute, and This Is Our Youth by Kenneth Lonergan. In the not-for-profit theatre, he founded and for 14 years was the Producing Director of the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Currently, he is the chairman of AMAS Musical Theatre, a not-for-profit dedicated to the training of "city kids" in the performing arts and the creation of new musical for multi-ethnic casts. Mr. Krebs is Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University and currently professor of theatre at Baruch College of CUNY.

Living Liberally National Leadership also includes Directors Katrina Baker and Matthew O'Neill and Leaders Mary Bruch, Wendy Cohen, Kombiz Lavasany, Greg Rae, Matt Rosenberg and Kerry Trueman.