What’s So Funny About…? Ep 14 – IrReverent: Spirituality, Comedy, and the Body Politic [Video]

In this special episode of the “What’s So Funny About…?” Podcast, IrReverent: Spirituality, Comedy, and the Body Politic, brought to you by the Liberation Comedy Project, we talk with Benjamin-Shalom Rodriguez and Rev. Barbara Ann Michaels.

Benjamin-Shalom Rodriguez (he/they) is a queer, Mexican-Israeli-American writer, director, and comedian. Ben’s currently developing his half-hour animated comedy, Jesus Versus Zeus, with Sony and completed  season 2 of Stoned Breakups, which he created and hosts. He’s also an educator and filmmaker mentor with Edward James Olmos’ Latino Film Institute/Youth Cinema Project, where they teach students from underfunded schools how to make short films, and a charter member of the queer Latinx writers collective, The Clubhouse.

Benjamin is also the director of America’s Next Top Immigrant (⁠https://danceswithfilms.com/americas-next-top-immigrant/⁠) and can be followed on Instagram at @lolohgosh and lologosh.

Reverend Barbara Ann Michaels, Jester of the Peace, (⁠https://www.jesterofthepeace.com/⁠), is an award-winning interfaith minister, performance artist, humorist, and author on a humanitarian humor mission.

She founded the House of Holy Humor, a secular congregation for the humor arts. All faiths and atheists are welcome. Love, art, and humor are her trifecta of tools for emotional well-being. House of Holy Humor delivers playfully serious participatory arts experiences that further love, connection, and healing internationally, often through collaboration with organizations.
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Her background includes using audience-interactive art and performance to further community and corporate missions at events from galas to trade shows to festivals and parties.

She also had a 20 year career as an arts educator in theater and improvisation for adults and youth, amplifying their leadership skills through self-expression and collaboration.

As an ordained interfaith minister, she was a wedding officiant for 10 years, specializing in creative ceremonies, including costume and helicopter weddings, for over 550 couples. She performed some of the first legal LGBTQ weddings in New York State.

Her definition of a fulfilling life is people finding, giving, and being appreciated for their gifts to humanity – all people seen, heard, celebrated, and connected. She acts for a win-win world.

The Liberation Comedy Project is being incubated by Mediators Foundation
(⁠https://www.mediatorsfoundation.org/⁠) and managed by YOUnify
(⁠https://www.younify.org/⁠).