PRIDE GUIDE 1997 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

B-25

Two gay comics stop in Akron during Pride month

by Doreen Cudnik

Akron-Scott Kennedy and Kevin Maye will be bringing the Gay Comedy Jam Freedom Tour to Akron's Hilarities Comedy Club on MondayJune 9.

In addition to sharing a love for comedy, Maye and Kennedy share their lives together. They are domestic partners and live together in Houston, Texas when they are not on tour with the show..

"We definitely consider our relationship a marriage," Kennedy said, adding that they

"I know that 25 years ago to have an openly gay performer at a mainstream venue was unheard of. Today we are selling out shows all over the nation."

both dislike the terms that are currently available for same-sex couples.

"We say domestic partners, but that makes it sound like one of us is the pet," Kennedy said. "We haven't come up with anything we like."

The two decided to form the Gay Comedy Jam in 1994 as a way to spend more time together. The show allowed them to tour together while filling a niche for gay and lesbian audiences tired of hearing anti-gay humor in mainstream comedy clubs.

"It's great to have that support when you're on the road," Kennedy said, "and to be with someone you love." Maye agrees. "It was a really smart move that enhanced our careers and made us enjoy it a lot more."

Since its inception, the tour has sold out in almost every major market, and established itself as the first and only all-gay stand-up

comedy show to tour nationally and feature all gay stand-up comedians. The tour is sponsored by the Advocate, a national gay and lesbian news magazine.

Maye and Kennedy have headlined most major comedy clubs in the U.S. from Seattle to Miami. They have opened concerts for Garth Brooks, David Sanborn and Judy Tenuta, and have made numerous appearances on HBO's Comedy Channel, and A&E's An Evening at the Improv. In 1996 the Hollywood Reporter named them "the most successful gay comics to ever tour nationally."

"I know that 25 years ago to have an openly gay performer at a mainstream venue was unheard of. Today we are selling out shows all over the nation," Maye said. “Scott and I are very excited to be part of this history making event."

While their show is targeted primarily for a gay and lesbian audience, Kennedy and Maye said that their show can be enjoyed by everybody. "We don't talk about our girlfriends, wives or children," Maye said in an interview with the Houston Post. "But we do talk about our relationship, and the bottom line is relationships are relationships and funny is funny."

Both men are very different in appearance as well as their comedy style. Maye is the more flamboyant of the two and his comedy is more political than that of his partner. Kennedy is an ex-jock who doesn't fit most people's expectations about what a gay man ought to look like. His humor is more along the lines of "funny anecdotes from the guy next door."

Kennedy, who headlines Comedy Jam, summed up their differences in an interview with the Albuquerque Journal. “I say, 'I hope you all enjoyed Kevin, he's here for all you swishing, skipping fags. I'm here for the lesbians.'

In 1996, Maye went public with the fact he was HIV positive and diagnosed with full

Scott Kennedy

blown AIDS just two years earlier. He is now one of only two HIV positive comics in the world who use the fact in their comedy. Maye commented that he wanted to express his "out-positive humor" as a way to show people that he, along with so many others, was living with AIDS, and not dying from it.

Maye described the experience of coming out as HIV positive as "very liberating" and hopes that his coming out as a gay man with

Kevin Maye

AIDS will help others come out of the closet and tell their families and friends they are gay.

The Gay Comedy Jam Freedom Tour will take place at 8:00 pm on Monday, June 9 at Hilarities Comedy Club, 1546 State Rd., Cuyahoga Falls. Tickets are $12 in advance and $15 the day of the show, plus tax. For more information or to charge tickets by phone call 330-923-4700.

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