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Columbia News Service - Apr 24, 2007

Whether 'out' or not, gay comedians are finding an audience

By Ashley L. Battle

Fresh out of graduate school, Adam Sank became a production assistant for Fox News when it first aired in 1996. Because Sank was gay, he decided to be “out” in the workplace.

“There was no question about being out,” he said. “I had always been out.” But that didn’t mean that being gay at a conservative network was an enjoyable experience.

“I felt ill coming to work there every day,” Sank said. After six years, he quit and moved to WABC-TV.

But even with the switch, he was unhappy. According to Sank, his unhappiness at the workplace was so apparent that Bill Ritter, anchor for the network, sent Sank an e-mail message about it.

“He said, ‘You’re a wonderful producer and we love you, but you’re the most miserable person I know. Life is short . . . you need to go find what you want to do and love that,'” Sank said. Within a month, Sank gave his notice.

“I didn’t want to do the news anymore,” Sank said. “I missed performing like I did in high school and college.”

So Sank hit the stage and became a comedian four years ago. His experiences at Fox News have become a major part of his comedy routine, which focuses mostly on his experiences as a gay man living in New York.

“I call [my time at Fox] my own personal Auschwitz,” he told a crowd at Comix in lower Manhattan at his monthly comedy show “Adam Sank’s Gay Bash.”

Sank has become one of the better known gay comedians in the country, having appeared on VH1’s “Best Week Ever.”

With more and more celebrities coming out of the closet, gay comedians are enjoying a move from gay venues to more mainstream ones.

But it hasn’t always been so easy. Bob Smith, 48, was the first gay comedian to perform on the "Tonight Show" and to have his own HBO half-hour special, which aired in 1994. Smith decided when he first hit the comedy scene in the late 1980s that his sexuality was going to be included in his act.

“I started comedy to be a comedian, not a gay comedian,” Smith said. “But I wanted to talk about my life, so why not talk about that?”

There was another reason Smith decided to use his sexuality as comedic material. “It was one of the few last areas that no one had done before,” he said. “Every subject in comedy was straight . . . it’s fun to find a fresh point of view.”

For the most part, Smith didn’t face too much opposition when he performed. However, a performance in Seattle, shortly before the HBO special aired, was what Smith called “the worst show in history.” Smith was talking about being gay.

“About five minutes into the show, half the audience walked out of a 300-seat comedy club,” Smith said.

But despite that performance, Smith has said his experiences with audiences have been positive. “People say really nice things about seeing stand-up or reading my book," he said. "But there is a difference between being the joke and making the joke.”

In some cases, people who have seen Smith’s comedy have opened up to him as a result.

At one benefit, an audience member came up to Smith and told him that he had found out that day that he was HIV positive.

“He told me, ‘I didn’t know if I wanted to come, but I laughed and I had a good time,” Smith said.

Despite the show in Seattle, Smith said his sexual orientation had never been used against him by an audience. “Honestly, I’ve never had anyone heckle or yell at me during a show . . . and I think honestly because when you’re really up front about it, they’d be a moron to say, ‘Hey, faggot!’”

When Sank got his start, the majority of his performances were at specifically gay venues.

“Gay-owned and operated venues tend to book gay performers," Sank said. "I got them sooner than I would have if I had just been a straight guy. But you also have to be good. It does give you a little niche. If you are good, you do move a little faster.”

But despite the acceptance of gay comedians, not all gay comedians choose to include their sexual orientation in their routines. William Mullin, 37, is one of those.

Mullin became a comedian seven years ago. During the day, he works in advertising and pursues stand-up comedy during the weekends, evenings and vacation.

“I use office experience, family issues and if being gay comes up and is funny then I insert it," he said. "Otherwise, my comedy probably has more sports references in it than gay references. Many people assume I am straight. Once a female audience member was kind of flirting with me and I said to her, ‘You are so hot. Do you have a brother?’”

Keith Price, 40, used to hide the fact he was gay in his comedy routines, which he has been doing for 17 years. At the time, Price lived in Austin, Texas, and he said he was not completely comfortable with his sexual orientation. Price got the idea to enter comedy when he saw a comedian who he thought wasn't funny performing on the "Tonight Show."

“He stunk," Price said. "I was thinking, ‘You’re not funny, and you’re on national television.' I got into comedy because I felt I could.”

After attending a comedy gym, which functions as a workshop for comedians, Price started doing stand-up while in college. But he took a break from comedy to finish his degree at the University of Texas-Austin. After his 20th birthday, he moved to New York City and vowed to be open up about his sexuality for the first time on stage.

“Before, I wasn’t comfortable with everyone knowing I was gay," he said. "Eventually, I started getting over that and embraced the whole homosexuality of me.”

Now, Price is the first openly gay black on Sirius satellite radio. He has his own show called Out Q in the morning, alongside Larry Flick and Cynthia. While doing stand-up in New York, his race and his sexuality sometimes made it difficult for him to get gigs. Price often found that he didn’t fit the mold of what a venue wanted in a comedian.

“It’s very difficult because there are venues that want to do shows, like urban genre shows, but I don’t act like some brother off the street,” Price said.

Mullin agreed, saying: “I have found that audiences react to gay-themed comedy more if the comedian fits their mold of 'gay' to them. I certainly don't fit that mold and don't try to.”

Gay City News - Apr 26, 2007

Guffaws On Gay Street

By: WILL MCKINLEY

In 1994, Bob Smith became the first openly gay man to perform stand-up comedy on "The Tonight Show." Thirteen years later, he remains the one and only.
"I think I might have scared them," Smith told me before an appearance on "Adam Sank's Gay Bash" at Comix in the Meatpacking District. "Jay was super friendly, but we heard that some of the advertisers were not happy about it."

Comics like Smith, Sank, and other talented jokesters are doing their best to shatter the comedic glass ceiling, and in the process are creating some of the sharpest stand-up in New York.

"The beautiful thing about comedy is that it bridges the gaps between communities," Sank told me. "At its best it creates a common experience that we can all relate to."

Sank's provocatively titled monthly revue is just one of a number of regularly scheduled shows where LGBT and gay-friendly comedians entertain crowds of all orientations.

"It used to be that there were no gay shows," comic Lisa Kaplan told me after a recent installment of "Homo Comicus" at Gotham Comedy Club in Chelsea. "Now every club has one."

Kaplan and a cast of fabulously funny females are currently touring as the "Lesbians of Laughter," and they're not just playing Provincetown. "We're doing a show in Jacksonville, Florida and then Alabama," Kaplan said. "It varies, but our crowds are often half and half."

The April edition of "Homo Comicus" featured a diverse collection of characters, including Chantal Carrere and the delightfully dirty Jackie Monahan (both from the "LOL" tour), Jim David (star of his own Comedy Central half-hour special), and acclaimed storyteller Greg Walloch (recently profiled in Gay City News).

Comic Bob Montgomery started producing the show more than eight years ago, when the world was a different place.

"Comics used to balk at being listed in the ads, but nowadays they're more willing to be out," he told me. "But it's amazing how phobic some straight people are about going to a gay-themed comedy show."

Perhaps that situation is beginning to change as well. At "Homo Comicus," emcee Marion Grodin called attention to a teenaged girl sitting with two middle-aged women, and assumptions were made about Heather having two mommies.

"I'm actually straight," mom Cleo Fogel told me afterwards. "My daughter is 18 and in four months she leaves for college. The more she is exposed to when I'm around, the better." Her daughter agreed. "We may be from Pennsylvania but we're not hicks!"

Gay comedy has proven to be a reliable and profitable draw for big clubs but, with $15 cover charges and the dreaded two-drink minimum, these shows can be a pricey proposition. Those seeking laughs of a cheaper variety need only look to the bars, basements, and alternative spaces of the city's funkier nabes.

Each week, gay comic Dave Rubin hosts "Thursgay" at Mo Pitkins on Avenue A. But the host has only been known as "gay comic Dave Rubin" for the last eight months. For the first nine years of his stand-up career he was just "comic Dave Rubin."

"I was out on stage before my family even knew," said Rubin after a recent show. "I don't know if it's good for my career but it's good for my life, and that's more important.

"Thursgay" is a true alternative comedy show and that's a niche producer and co-host Shawn Hollenbach is happy to fill.

"Our demographic skews younger," Hollenbach told me. "Comics can say whatever they want here, where at the clubs you have to filter your material to fit a certain crowd."

The audience that packed the tiny upstairs lounge at Mo's seemed to enjoy the intimate mood of the show. Two young women snuggled on the couch, while another female couple sat cross-legged on the floor. At times the evening felt less like a comedy show and more like a slumber party, particularly when four audience members (known as the Lesbian Overtones) got up and sang a capella versions of hits from Melissa Etheridge and the Indigo Girls. Through it all, ESPN's "Sportscenter" played silently on a flat screen monitor in the corner of the room.

"Dave Rubin loves sports," Hollenbach joked, after a lychee martini (or two). "He's the straightest gay man I know."

Comic Leah Dubie also made peace with her orientation during the course of her development on the stand-up stage.

"Five years ago I wasn't an out gay comic. I wasn't even an out gay person," she told me after a show at Pieces, a bar on Christopher and Gay Streets in the West Village. "Now I usually bring it up later in my set like, "Well you liked me before. Are you going to take that back?'"

Every Sunday night, Pieces interrupts the boozy, cruisey revelry for "Ménage a HA," hosted by Christian Cintron, who describes himself as "gay, Puerto Rican, and a human being." Stand-up shows in bars can be a challenge for both the performers and the audience members.

"Most gay men have the attention span of a flea, especially when they're at a bar drinking with friends," said Sank, who also emcees a long-running Sunday night soiré at Therapy in Hell's Kitchen. "I have to do a lot more crowd work to keep them involved. It's definitely looser."

Even looser than bar comedy are the alternative cabaret shows that feature gender-benders like Murray Hill.

"I'm out shticking five times a week at various events," said Hill, who was recently featured on Logo TV and will be headlining "Adam Sank's Gay Bash" on May 17. "I do a little something for everybody to enjoy."

LGBT laughs are louder and prouder than ever, particularly now with national exposure on Logo. But with such a wealth of smart, diverse voices on the scene, why hasn't gay comedy achieved more mainstream success?

Veteran comic Danny Cohen, who has appeared on Comedy Central's "Premium Blend," has his own theory.

"You can't write inside jokes, and a lot of gay comics make that mistake," he told me. "I write for my brothers, who are homophobic. That's where my struggle is, and comedy comes from struggle."

"I look to the next generation," said Sank. "Watch MTV. They have these dating shows where one day they'll have a straight couple and the next day they'll have a gay couple, and it's no big deal."

Bob Smith, who was recently selected for the new season of NBC's "Last Comic Standing," believes that the revolution has already begun.

"For a long time there were only about eight gay men who were out and made a living doing stand-up," he said. "The situation is different now. I don't think it's an issue anymore."

"There isn't anybody in America who hasn't been touched by somebody who is gay, and I mean that inappropriately," Danny Cohen quipped. "I see the future for America being very gay."

Review of "Adam Sank's Gay Bash" in Chelsea Now newspaper -- Feb. 23, 2007

HX Magazine Weekly Feature Story - Aug 18, 2006

The Funniest People on Earth

by Ryan Doyle

No stranger to the New York comedy circuit, out comedian Adam Sank brings a troop of gay and gay-friendly comics to the prestigious Carolines on Broadway for Adam Sank’s Gay Bash. The former Fox News producer turned stand-up comedian let us in on a few tricks of the trade - including what makes the gays wet their pants and how his penis really isn’t that small after all.

HX: I saw a comedy show the other night and it was, to be blunt, atrocious. It made me realize that comedy is one of the most difficult, if not the most difficult of the arts. How do you make it look so easy?
Adam Sank: It is the most difficult, without a doubt. I’d like to think I always make it look easy. Sometimes I probably look like some of the people you saw last night. You have to just get on stage and get as much stage time as you can until you start to learn how to feel out a crowd because every crowd is completely different. You’ll never get the same reaction twice for the same joke. So you have to figure out what is it about this joke that the crowd is going to like. And when you can figure that out spontaneously on your feet, you can deliver consistent sets. But it is fucking hard. You have to be willing to face rejection and humiliation over and over again. Unfortunately I’m used to that because of the way I was raised. That was a joke.

[Laughs] I was laughing on the inside. Your show at Carolines is a gay night at a straight venue. How is that going to work?
It is definitely a straight club and a straight crowd. For me that’s a blessing because I love performing for straight people. And I especially love showcasing gay comedians in front of straight people. Rest assured, there will be gay people there. But it’s tougher to entertain gay men. The one thing performing at [therapy] has done for me is it’s really stretched me as a performer, no pun intended. I’ve learned how to roll with a crowd that really isn’t so easily amused. They’re drinking, they’re with their friends, they may not even know there’s a comedy show going on and all of a sudden I get on stage I’m like yackety-yak-yak and they’re saying, “What? Who are you and get the fuck off.”

You’re the host and you’re also the producer of the show. Did you pick all the comics?
Yes. They are my choices of the best and brightest in gay and gay-friendly comics. Karith Foster, who’s straight, has become something of a gay icon because of her appearances at therapy and Don’t Tell Mama. Gay crowds just adore her. And Kevin Meaney, our headliner, has always been someone who gay people relate to, I think because he imitates his mother so much. And, even though he’s straight, there’s something so campy about him.

Is funny the new sexy?
If you’re asking does it help me get laid, the answer’s no.

But you’re quite the handsome homosexual! And your photos are simply gorgeous.
Oh, thank you, sweetie. The thing is I tend to talk a lot on stage about how small my penis is and I think it hurts my chances of hooking up. On the other hand, when - I know you’re going to print this - when I actually do hook up with someone who’s seen my act, they’re like, “Your penis isn’t that small.” So it’s sort of a mixed blessing.

Are you comfortable with being known as a gay comedian?
I’ve been out of the closet in every career that I’ve ever had including when I worked at Fox News Channel. I understand not everybody wants to hear about your sexual orientation and I don’t think I go around talking about it constantly, but it is a part of who I am. It’s as essential to me as being a man or being left-handed or being Jewish or having been born and raised in New Jersey. So when I started doing comedy, my main thing was I just wanted to be myself and gay is a part of that. I do happen to believe that gay people are the funniest people on earth though.

And that’s what makes them such hard audiences.
Absolutely. I think you could pull any gay man onto the stage and they could immediately start doing stand-up. It’s what we do. I think it’s how we get through life, especially when we’re young and feeling weird and out of place and repressed. Gay men and lesbians I just think are naturals at comedy. So I’m proud to be known as a gay comic.

Thanks for sharing. Good luck with the show.
Thank you! I can’t wait to see how this article turns out. The headline’s going to be, “Adam Sank has a small penis!”

Adam Sank’s Gay Bash, 9:30pm Wed Aug 23 at Carolines, 1626 Broadway (49th St), 212-757-4100, cover varies.  

Next Magazine cover story - Mar 31, 2006

Electro-Shock stand-up Adam Sank drives the laughs home.

by Gregory T. Angelo
photography by Liz Liguori
(shot on location at therapy)

Ever heard of a “ringer?” Out stand-up Adam Sank has—and he doesn’t like them.

If you’re among the uninitiated, Sank explains the terminology: “For a while comedy clubs were more interested in filling seats than anything else,” he says, “and the scene became entrenched in this system of what they call ‘ringer shows’ where it didn’t matter who you were or where you came from—if you could get 40 of your closest friends and relatives to come and see you, you got a slot.”

Then, he explains his displeasure with said system: “Do you know what it’s like to sit through 20 comics who aren’t that good or even ready yet?” Anyone who’s ever fallen for the schpiel of a Times Square street-corner frat boy hawking Kinko’s leaflets and barking the “Free comedy!” tag-line knows all-too-well what Sank is talking about.

“Sooner or later people learn that they’re not seeing good people [when they go to ringer shows],” Sank continues. A relative newbie who chose comedy over a career as a PA with the Fox News Channel (no explanation needed), Sank admits to seeing the value in ringer spots but is likewise quick to point out the consequential backlash their culture created. “I think we’re seeing a shift now where you’re starting to see more shows like mine,” he says.

With six months under his belt as host of therapy’s popular Sunday night Electro-Shock Comedy Hour and fresh off a spot on VH1’s Best Week Ever, Sank has reason to brag. His efforts as emcee since September have brought the largely under-the-radar homo stand-up scene to the attention of the gay community at large by taking the mic from its traditional spot on the traditional stages of the city’s traditional comedy clubs and planting it in front of the boys at the sleek 52nd Street lounge. With that move came the opportunity to feature fringe performers such as the outrageous Wendy Ho, character acts such as Robin Fox’s ode to truly desperate housewivery, Karith Foster’s ethnic stew and in-your-face guys like Brian Barry alongside more traditional performers such as Ophira Eisenberg and Eddie Sarfaty as well as work-horse vets Bob Smith and Danny McWilliams.

It’s a transition that took some getting used-to—both for therapy’s audience and their host. “It’s a completely different animal when you’re performing for gay people—especially gay men,” Sank elaborates. “They’re the hardest group in the world to entertain, period. Gay men have a more finely developed sense of irony and absurdity than any other people on earth, so it takes a lot to entertain them. Every gay man is a stand-up comedian—and they’re all pretty fucking hilarious! I learned very quickly that my standard material that plays well at a place like Caroline’s—coming out of the closet, breaking up with my boyfriend, my job at Fox News—all of these jokes I could rely on, at therapy they were like, ‘So what?’ It was a tremendous challenge for me and it continues to be a challenge, but I think I’ve learned that what they really wants is spontaneity—they want you to be edgy, they want you to take chances and they want you to interact with them. The queens need to be acknowledged—you can’t just stand up there; you need to write material on the spot based on the experience we’re all having together—that’s what they want to see.”

Electro-Shock Comedy Hour plays 10pm Sundays
at therapy (348 W 52nd St, 212-397-1700).

New York Cool.com - January, 2006

Written by Shareshten Senior

So I was going to see Adam Sank host the Electro-shock Therapy Comedy Hour at Therapy and I walked in the bar with my tall and handsome friend who just happens to be straight. Little did he know - we were going "gaybarring"!

Adam greeted me right away with a warm smile and handshake thanking me for coming and proudly announcing that New York Cool was here and now we could start the show. Okay! Adam has some sense of humor. He was dressed in a western style snap-button-down shirt topped by a cowboy hat, but his style screamed Manhattanite. His jeans certainly were not Wranglers and his boots were not quite the cowboy style.

My friend and I sat at a round cocktail table on the front row and started devouring $5 Cosmopolitans, the strongest I have ever had. The stage looked like it was built in front of a large white-brick fireplace. About forty candles decorated the inside of this would-be fireplace.

The line-up for the night included songs by Wendy Ho, baby and lesbian stories by Carolyn Castiglia and a set from the headliner Danny McWilliams.

Adam then trotted out to the front of the stage. He started the night off with a confessional life history, which included confessions he has had to make to his parents. There is something precocious and adorable about Adam and the guy is funny too.

Wendy Ho was totally ghetto. She sang "Bitch, I Stole your Purse" with a grimy voice. She was dressed ghetto fabulous with a white rabbit vest accented by a huge gold belt and a jewelry box full of gold accessories. The big hit of the evening was her rendition of "Get Here," which was called "Fuck me." She cleverly depicted the different times a woman wants to be fucked, contrasting them from the times she wants to be made love to. The gay men in the audience loved her set. Instead of "I don't care how you get here, just get here if you can," she made her rendition, "I don't care how you fuck me, just fuck me when you can." The crowd responded throughout the number with knowing nods, hysterics and claps.

Next up was Carolyn Castiglia, whom you may have seen perform at Caroline's or Gotham. She graced the stage wearing a "tent" of a shirt, which she said she wore for easy nipple access. She explained that she had pulled her eight-month-old-baby-girl off her breast as she ran out the door to "work." She also told us that work was the place where she could cuddle a beer and her husband wouldn't know. She told us that she felt there was a certain amount of lesbianism to breast feeding. Before the birth of her baby, the only times a woman had sucked her tit, it was lesbianism. She also spoke about living in East Harlem as a white woman with a black woman's ass. Carolyn certainly does know how to throw the shit right back at anyone who wants to dish it out.

You've probably seen Danny McWilliams on "Funny Gay Males." He has done the show since 1988 and occasionally still does. McWilliams stole the night and the love of the gay audience. The Queens-raised headliner was the only openly gay comedian as well as the comedy connoisseur for the evening. McWilliams spoke of the evolution of the homosexual community. The community has had many changes - from being an illness to being a community to being the "gay community" to being the "gay and lesbian community." McWilliams had loads of stories that illustrate what it's like to be part of the gay and lesbian community. For all you straight men who may think that this comedy show is not quite your cup of tea - when my straight male friend was asked by McWilliams to imagine for a second that his brother came to him and challenged him to use the word "hooter" in a sentence. Little Danny proclaimed: "Whoda hell decorated this room?" My handsome friend then broke from his nervous stance of clenching butt muscles and burst out in hysterical laughter. Lastly, Danny left the gay and lesbian community with some hope for 2006 saying, "Thank god we have a new pope because John Paul was against gay marriage."

Therapy has often been described as having a tough crowd to please, but all three performers had a ball and the audience loved them. The women were hysterically raunchy and McWilliams was classically and wittily gay. And I already told you I liked Adam Sank.

Click here to visit NewYorkCool.com

exerpt from HX - Homo Dish - Dec 16, 2005

ALSO SEEN: ELECTROSHOCK AT THERAPY

FUNNY BONES - Sunday night at Adam Sank's Electroshock Therapy Comedy Hour, Sank made us choke on our cosmos with tales of his family's Thanksgiving, monologist (and cunnilinguist) Tara Clancy charmed with her Staten Island coming-out story, comedian Robert H. Keller reenacted Spanish soap operas and headliner Bob Smith riffed on everything from the implausibility of porn to the proliferation of Gay Pride oven mitts. Oh, those 'mos!

exerpt from HX - Homo Dish - Oct 14, 2005

THIS WEEK: Pink Parties and “Jackie” Daniels Too PLUS: Supping With Ashlee Simpson!

... Our last stop of the evening was therapy, where we got some in the form of comic relief at the all-new Electroshock Therapy Comedy Hour, hosted by Adam Sank. Though straight bad boy Colin Kane and headliner Erin Foley had us cracking up (Foley on the challenge of performing in front of her fellow lesbians: “Wait, does that last joke further the gay cause?”), it was Sank’s one-liners about poor Kate Moss that had us truly shedding tears of laughter. “She may have lost all those fashion endorsements, but think of all the new endorsements she can pick up now,” he joked. “‘Hello, I’m Kate Moss. And after a long night of blowing rails, I sometimes have trouble getting to sleep. That’s when I reach for Lunestra.’” Us too. Thanks a lot, ladies and gentlemen, you’ve been a fabulous audience!

Broadwayworld.com -- June 25, 2005

Photo Coverage: The Scott Nevins Variety Hour at Caroline's On Broadway

by Linda Lenzi

Award-winning celebrity host Scott Nevins gathered together some of Broadway's brightest and Nightlife's best for a one night only extravaganza of outrageous comedy and sensational song in the Scott Nevins Variety Hour at the legendary Caroline's On Broadway on June 22nd.

The long list of stellar guest stars include Broadway's original "Annie," Andrea McArdle, plus Shayna Steele, John Hill, Ari Gold, Adam Sank, Natalie Joy Johnson, Allison Tilsen, Lori Ann Strunk, Adam Joseph, Shaboomboom* and more!

http://www.broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=3757

Hal Sparks and Adam Sank

Natalie Joy Johnson, John Hill and Adam Sank

HX Magazine -- January 14, 2005

“A former boyfriend and I went went to gay couples therapy, which is a lot like straight couples therapy - except there’s a disco ball.”

It’s a funny joke, one that out comedian Adam Sank can rely on: “Straight people love it,” says the stand-up, who knows how to adapt his act for gay audiences (hence the gratuitous shot above). Sank will join Keith Price, Deke Haylon, Brian Balthazar, Tim York, Adam Lehman, Mina Hartong, Bruce White, Michael Brill and headliner Julie Goldman on January 18 for an evening of homo hilarity titled Gay on Broadway, a night of stand-up at Caroline’s comedy club produced by Tracy Esposito.

If you don’t hit the comedy circuit regularly, but this hunk looks familiar, you might have seen him at Hell’s Kitchen hot spot Barrage, where he worked as a waiter. Sank was also a successful TV news producer at Fox and ABC before shucking it all for stand-up.

Sank’s act usually consists of autobiographical bits culled from, for example, living in an all- Chinese graduate school dormitory and coming out to his parents (they’re from Summit, New Jersey). A skilled mimic, Sank avoids typical gay fodder and instead skewers his family, particularly his mother, who, similar to Margaret Cho’s mom, now relishes the attention. Another popular routine, in which Sank riffs on the 1010 WINS coverage of the 2003 blackout, earned him first place at New York Comedy Club’s New Talent Contest.

He’s also collaborating on a book by Esquire magazine, titled Things a Man Should Never Do Past the Age of 30. “I had to keep reminding myself it was for straight men,” he says, noting that previous installments for a similar column in the magazine included such gems as, “Don’t use cardboard boxes as furniture” and “Don’t get your pet stoned.”

“Straight audiences are much easier than gay ones,” Sank notes. “Every gay man is a comic after two cocktails.”

Yet not many queens stake out the comedy circuit. Aside from well-known funnymen Jim David or Bob Smith - and now Ant and Modi - most of our community’s laugh riots arrive in drag. “Stand-up tends to be dominated by straight men,” Sank acknowledges. “I think it’s not that the opportunity isn’t there [for gays]. But as a discipline - an artform - comedy isn’t particularly gay, like theater or dance.”

The New York Times -- July 18 -- NEW YORK OBSERVED; Caught in the Act
By ADAM SANK

I was watching ''The Sopranos'' during a visit to my parents' home in New Jersey when I got a message from the manager of Barrage bar on 47th Street, where I sometimes work as a waiter. The police were looking for me. Apparently a man had climbed onto the fire escape of my Hell's Kitchen apartment and entered through the living room window. A neighbor from the building across the courtyard had witnessed the break-in and called the police. By the time they arrived minutes later, the intruder was gone. My front door was unlocked; he had apparently let himself out. Panicked, I called the Midtown North Precinct: Was anything missing from the apartment? ''Nothing appeared to be,'' said the officer I spoke with, ''but you should come home and see for yourself. Then call back and let us know.'' After a fretful train ride back to the city, during which I made a mental inventory of my valuables (sadly, a very short list), I got home and surveyed the scene. TV? Check. VCR? Check. Sofa? Check. Computer and printer? Check, check. Then I saw the bed. The heavy wooden build-it-yourself full-size box frame that I had bought at Ikea several years earlier was broken in two places, leaving the mattress severely tilted to one side and wholly unsuitable for sleeping. To be honest, I had always sort of hated that bed. It was the wrong size and shape for such a tiny bedroom, and I had often bashed my shins on the corners. Perhaps my uninvited visitor, in his illicit haste, had done the same and taken his revenge. In any case, I moved the rubble out into the hall and slept badly on the bare mattress. The next morning I filed a report with Midtown North, and an officer promised to be in touch. With no suspects and my bed the only casualty, however, the case seemed low on the list of police priorities. Then an amazing thing happened. One Sunday afternoon a month later when I was sitting by my window, I noticed a person lowering himself from the roof to the fire escape of the opposite building. Earlier that day I had observed an extremely overweight cat shimmy onto the same landing, so my first thought was that the climber was looking for his pet. But something about this person's demeanor -- aimless, confused, not making ''meow'' noises -- struck me as odd. Then I recalled the description of the intruder my neighbor had given the police: young, white, blond. This man was all those things. He was also wearing a rather handsome blue dress shirt, black dress pants and sandals. All very J. Crew. I watched, fascinated, as he ambled down the fire escape from landing to landing, occasionally pausing to peer into a window. Then my neighbor -- the one who had called police during the first incident -- poked his head out his apartment window, pointed to the person on the fire escape and nodded vigorously, as if to say, ''That's him, dude!'' I dialed 911. By the time the police arrived five minutes later, the intrepid climber had reached the courtyard, scaled a stone divider and moved onto his next destination. One of the policeman climbed out of my window and began to descend the fire escape in pursuit. He had almost reached the ground when Observant Neighbor cried out: ''He's not down there anymore! He's on the roof of the next building!'' The officer hurried back up the ladder and into my apartment. ''Come on!'' I beckoned, caught up in the drama. ''This way to the roof!''		I led him up the stairs to the common roof deck. There, three rooftops away, was Mr. Illegally Blond himself. ''That's him!'' I cried in a shockingly embarrassing falsetto. The officer drew his gun and sprang into action, scaling the barbed-wire divider fences and leaping from rooftop to rooftop as if in pursuit of a Qaeda lieutenant rather than a petty burglar with a penchant for destroying sensibly priced bedroom furniture. Moments later, the officer had our young adventurer in handcuffs. ''We think we can get him for trespassing,'' one of the officers told me as the suspect was being escorted to the station house, ''but not necessarily for burglary. It depends on whether your neighbor can positively identify him.'' It turned out that wasn't even necessary. ''He admitted to being the one who entered your apartment a month ago,'' a detective told me the next day. ''He says you made fun of him one time, and he wanted to scare you by messing up your apartment.'' This scenario was not out of the realm of possibility, as I am a stand-up comic. But my brand of comedy rarely involves insulting the audience. ''This guy skips from topic to topic,'' the detective continued, ''so it's hard to get a straight answer. Even if you did make fun of him, I don't think he singled you out; we have him connected to some other incidents in the neighborhood.'' As I tried to deal with the disappointment of losing what would have been my first celebrity stalker, I asked the detective for more information about the suspect. He told me my intruder had come to the city from Alabama about three months ago, and was apparently homeless. Several days later, the assistant district attorney assigned to the case told me more about this character. ''He's homeless,'' she confirmed, ''but he's spent most of his time at the Marriott Marquis Hotel, hanging around in the halls and eating food off people's trays.'' As to how he ended up in New York in the first place, she said, ''He came here for a Britney Spears concert, and he just never went home.'' Now I was really furious; I'd tried for weeks to get tickets to that concert. ''Just one more thing,'' I asked. ''He told the cops he messed up my apartment because I had made fun of him and he wanted to scare me. Is that true?'' ''No, he's not saying that anymore,'' she replied. ''Now he's staying he just got stuck on your fire escape and needed a way to get down to the street, so he went through your apartment. He swears he didn't break your bed.'' ''So what does he say he was doing on my fire escape in the first place?'' I wondered. She smiled. ''He doesn't have an answer for that.'' The ending of this true crime story is bittersweet: The district attorney's office decided not to bring charges against the young man. He had no past criminal record, and it hadn't seemed like he intended to harm anyone, my broken bed notwithstanding. Rather, he is now a patient in a psychiatric facility and will soon return to Alabama. As for me, I find myself staring out the window from time to time, glancing upward and scanning the fire escape for activity. But all I ever see is the cat.

Fox News Channel's Website -- June 22

"If you're in New York City this week, catch Adam Sank's stand-up comedy routine at Caroline's comedy club. Sank used to be a producer here at FNC and quit the journalism business to pursue his dream of being a comic."

Visit the site: click here

HX Magazine -- May 28, 2004

   

HX Magazine -- March 5, 2004

Next Magazine -- Feb 27, 2004