NYLaughs is back this summer with its highly anticipated series of free comedy performances, offering New Yorkers a much-needed laughter intervention and the opportunity to discover their own emotional support pigeons at our exciting signature Laughter in the Park pop-up events! NYLaughs is thrilled to join forces with Lincoln Center for the “Summer For The City” programming, a celebration of collaboration and giving back to the community. Best of all, admission to all shows is free!

This remarkable program is made possible by the generous support of various organizations.  NYLaughs would like to extend its gratitude to the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council for public funding; A.R.T./New York;  A.R.T./New York’s NYC Small Theatres Fund made possible with support from the Howard Gilman Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul. We thank the New York City Council for Discretionary Funding in addition to the Honorable Councilmembers Joseph C. Borelli, Gale Brewer and Keith Powers for their ongoing support of NYLaughs’ programming and mission.

Performer bios are below. Contact details and information for the public can be found by visiting www.nylaughs.org, www.summerforthecity.org, calling 917-727-5233 or following NYLaughs on twitter @NYLaughs or Instagram #NYLaughs.

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Lineup

Jordan Carlos HEADLINER

Jordan Carlos is a stand up comedian, writer and actor, who co-starred and wrote on the first season of “Everything’s Trash” (Freeform). He has also written for “Divorce” (HBO), written/performed for “The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore” (Comedy Central), and “First Wives Club” (BET). He also appeared on Black Mirror (Netflix), and the “Home Alone” reboot on Disney Plus.

Jess Salomon COMEDIAN

Comedian Jess Salomon is a former U.N. war crimes lawyer who has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and handles dark, sometimes dirty and often political topics with a light touch.

Vanessa Hollingshead COMEDIAN

Vanessa Hollingshead appeared in the ground-breaking Showtime Special, “Funny Women of a Certain Age,” hosted by Fran Drescher. FUNNY WOMEN OF A CERTAIN AGE became the network’s highest-rated premiere of a stand-up special in 2019. It is currently streaming on Showtime. Within six months Showtime did a second special of FUNNY WOMEN OF A CERTAIN AGE. She is also considered one of 2019 top 10 innovators that changed comedy: Vanessa also did an episode on Marc Maron’s WTF Podcast. She also is a regular on John Fugelsang’s “Tell Me Everything” on Sirius. She taped her fourth stand-up DVD/CD at New York Comedy Club, and did Gotham Live. She has had a special on Comedy Central. Performed Nationally and Internationally for Comedy Central. She was listed on Oxygen’s TV Special “Fifty of the Funniest women alive.” She has had 23 TV appearances, and performed at The Montreal Comedy Festival four times She has opened for Bill Maher, Richard Pryor, Chris Rock, Jim Norton, amongst others. Vanessa has worked with Jerry Seinfeld, Dane Cook, George Carlin and Ray Romano, and recently Brad Garrett.

Samantha Ruddy Comedian

Until the show’s cancellation in July of 2022, Samantha was a full-time digital producer and copywriter at Full Frontal with Samantha Bee. Samantha’s work at Full Frontal included writing straight to camera promos for Sam Bee, crafting funny copy for the show’s social media accounts, and contributing to scripts for web series including the Emmy Award-nominated Beeing At Home.  Samantha has performed standup on both The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. She’s also been heard on NPR.  Her debut comedy album, Logging Out, was named one of the best comedy albums of 2020 by NPR and is the reason Paste Magazine referred to her as a “joke machine.”

Pedro Gonzalez COMEDIAN

Pedro was born in Colombia and came to the U.S. at 19. He went to UCLA to get a Ph.D. in Literature so he could get a cushy job teaching at a University and work only a few hours a day. That plan collapsed once he found out stand-up comedy requires only one hour of work a day and he’s been chasing that whale ever since. He also writes and performs in his second language. His jokes are about what is like to date, work, and live in America when you were not born in America and you have an accent and your name is Pedro. His favorite thing about comedy is to defy stereotypes and challenges his audience’s point of view through intelligent humor. He’s the first Colombian comedian to appear on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”