We don’t see many older women of color talking on stage about coming out later in life and about being sexual beings - that they’re not just “fossils.” On top of that, she’s one of the best to ever do stand-up. and she came out on stage and did all this great queer material. I had her do a benefit for the LGBT Center in L.A. She’s so funny, but she came out later in life. Then there’s someone like Marsha Warfield, who we had worked with on a pilot for BET. People haven’t seen Eddie in a while, and I don’t think a lot of audiences have seen Eddie since she transitioned. Dressed to Kill was so powerful and so bold and coming out on that stage, she just destroyed it. Margaret Cho, Tig Notaro and Wanda Sykes Beth Dubber/NetflixĮddie has been totally reshaping comedy for decades. You amassed a large, diverse line-up of talent that really represents the generational spectrum of LGBTQ+ comedians. So the show we were doing for the documentary suddenly became a part of the festival and Robbie Praw was like, “Let’s just make it one of the tentpole shows of the festival.” Then as we were prepping for it, Netflix came back and said, “Hey, since we’re putting together this incredible live show at the Greek Theatre, why don’t we also make a variety special out of it?” At that point, we quickly reconfigured a bit and I brought in two different staffs - the doc staff and variety show staff - because they were different skill sets. In that time, the Netflix Is a Joke festival was born. The pandemic came and that sort of sidelined us. So I pitched it to Netflix as a doc, they bought that project that I, Brian Graden, Dave Mace and Wanda Sykes are involved in, and we started putting it together. I’ve always kind of loved that idea of blending the two, getting to see how art imitates life. I kind of dabbled a little bit with that format idea in a show I created for Epix called Unprotected Sets.
Then I could come in and out of interview and archival materials and go into performance. So I wanted there to be this really incredible comedy concert at the spine of the doc. Originally, I pitched a documentary to Netflix on the history of queer stand-up and the way I conceived of the doc was I wanted it to be different in format and structure and the way we tell the story. It actually had a different path than all the other shows. How did this become a part of the Netflix Is a Joke festival? The sold-out three-hour set, held at the 5,900-capacity outdoor Greek Theatre, featured Billy Porter, Lena Waithe, Sarah Paulson, Stephen Fry, Fortune Feimster, Solomon Georgio, Sam Jay, River Butcher, Patti Harrison, Matteo Lane, Marsha Warfield, Mae Martin, Judy Gold, Joel Kim Booster, James Adomian, Guy Branum, Gina Yashere, Bob the Drag Queen, Trixie Mattel, Scott Thompson and Todd Glass among its lineup of comedians and presenters.įollowing the Stand Out: An LGBTQ+ Celebration variety special’s release, Hurwitz spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about how the show will fit into the doc, how she amassed all that comedic talent and what makes the discussions about stage attacks in comedy different for LGBTQ+ comedians. Hosted by Billy Eichner and headlined by Eddie Izzard, Margaret Cho, Sandra Bernhard, Tig Notaro, Wanda Sykes and Rosie O’Donnell, the show is the largest known amassing of LGBTQ+ comedic talent on one stage. Page Hurwitz had a plan to tell the story of LGBTQ+ comedians with the help of one big historic show - and then the pandemic hit.īut as the global shuttering put a pause on her original plans, it opened the door for an invitation to the Netflix Is a Joke festival, where the director, writer, producer and comedian’s planned show - a featured part of Stand Out: The Documentary, which will debut on Netflix later this year - was able to be part of the streamer’s first major live comedy festival.