On Wednesday, June 26, Cameron Esposito ended a set in her new home of Los Angeles by saying, “Thanks a lot, Supreme Court, for burning all of my material.” That was the day SCOTUS handed down two decisions that are bright spots in a session that undermined other civil rights protections, repealing the Defense of Marriage Act and letting stand a lower-court ruling that California’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional.
But Esposito will take marriage equality over jokes any day. She’s been going HAM on the dumb, mean attitudes and arguments against it. “I have gotten more honest and angrier on stage,” Esposito told me in a recent e-mail, “and audiences have been angrier along with me.”
Since moving to LA last fall, she’s been hosting Put Your Hands Together, a weekly stand-up showcase at the UCB Theatre, featuring the likes of Jenny Slate, Bobcat Goldthwait, and Aziz Ansari (it’s also available as a podcast).
And when Esposito returns to Chicago to headline at the Hideout, you can reap another reward from the deaths of DOMA and Proposition 8: a happier comic and her self-titled Freedom Fest in honor of the birthday of our nation, God bless it. Comic Rhea Butler—who also moved to LA last year—opens.