Combining their taglines, two popular shows will offer “true tales of sexual adventure, boldly told,” on Thursday, Sept. 18, at Verdi Club, 2424 Mariposa St. in San Francisco.
SF’s Bawdy Storytelling founder, Dixie De La Tour, is teaming up with Risk! which was created by actor, writer and comedian, Kevin Allison. He said that while Risk! often features kinky stories, that’s the norm for Bawdy; so fans of sexual scintillation and titillation should take note.
“Risk!, and I’m sure Bawdy is the same way, is never trying to shock for the sake of shock. These stories always have heart,” Allison said. “Even if someone is doing something really dirty or kinky, they always get into how it made them feel and how they processed if afterward.”
Allison and De La Tour will each take turns telling a full story at one of the shows and will share emceeing duties through both. One of SF’s Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence will present a yarn as will sex educator, Reid Mihalko.
“He does a lot of teaching around the subject of polyamory and making polyamorous relationships work,” Allison said. “Reid is bisexual, and he’s going to tell a story about something that happened to him at kink camp, Dark Odyssey.”
Allison is constantly looking for new material with Risk!, a traveling show that hits spots all over the country and into locales like England. He gets a lot of story pitches via email and then asks potential storytellers to record a rough, improvised version. Then he gets into therapist mode.
“I start poking around with how and why questions. ‘Wait, did you really feel that way? Was there anything going on underneath?’” Allison said. “By the time they get up on stage, there’s been a lot of digging deeper.”
Aside from Risk! Allison is best known as one of the founding members of The State, a sketch comedy troupe that formed at New York University and exploded into popularity on MTV in the ‘90s. All 11 original members of The State will reunite for the first time in more than five years at Festival Supreme in Los Angeles on Saturday, Oct. 25. He said The State will likely perform some little-seen material, a couple of classic sketches and some appearances by recurring characters.
“It will be ridiculous. I saw most of the group the last time I was in Los Angeles,” Allison said. “We were just laughing like mad men.”
Visit risk-show.com and bawdystorytelling.com for more information about the shows on Thursday, Sept. 18.
Corey Andrew has been interviewing comedians and writing about comedy for the last decade and a half. He recently published the book, “Laugh Lines: Conversations with Comedians.” Corey was a writer and performer with Midwest sketch troupe, The NonProphets, before moving to the Bay Area with his family several years ago. If you have ideas for future columns about comedy, you can send them to coreywrites@yahoo.com or follow him at twitter.com/coreyshame.
