Queer comics take the stage at Greenwich Village Comedy Club in NYC

GREENWICH VILLAGE, Manhattan (PIX11) -- Have you ever been to a queer comedy show? To the gay comics performing, it’s not just a chance to have a safe space to be themselves and try out new material, but it’s also a healing catharsis and a path toward queer liberation.

As part of PIX11's continued focus on Pride Month, PIX11's Magee Hickey visited a weekly queer comedy show in the heart of Greenwich Village.

“Where are my queer people at? I’m queer,” Sheria Mattis, a queer comic, told the audience. “I don’t say gay because that gives my mother false hope,” she added with a smile and the crowd laughed.

Eleven comics, all queer, take the mic at the Greenwich Village Comedy Club to do seven-minute sets every Wednesday night. By the fall, the cream of the crop will compete in the New York Queer Comedy Festival, founded by Drew Tessier in 2017.

"The New York Queer Comedy Festival allows all of these weirdos from all over who moved to New York, who have a common dream, to get up and perform, to find each other and perform for our own community,” Tessier said.

The Queer Comedy Show is hosted by queer comic Bobby Hankinson on the third Wednesday of the month. He said it gives queer comics a safe space to try out new material, be themselves and not always try to fit into the world of straight stand-up comedy.

“They went from trying to fit into the comedy world to carve out a different shape niche altogether that you can see now on SNL,” Hankinson said.

The audience is often a combination of gay and straight people, with organizers saying straight comics often drop in to support and keep up with new, edgier material. There’s even a proud mother of a comic occasionally thrown into the mix.

Tina Montana was supporting her son Marcus, who grew up in the South Jersey’s Moorestown.

“It was tough growing up there,” Montana told the audience. “You had to travel all the way to Philadelphia to find a gay bar."

Afterward, Montana and his mother told PIX11 how important this queer comedy show is for them. 

"It helps me be an authentic person, helps me connect with the queer community as someone who is a little distant sometimes,” Marcus Montana said.

His mother concurred.

“Marcus is a funny guy. He wants to perform for people and make them laugh,” Tina Montana said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s queer or not. Everybody is who they are here today. Love is love. I am all for it."

The Queer Comedy Festival will be held in September.