A Special Evening of Comedy!

Pure Pleasure is delighted to be selected again as one of the venues for the Third Annual Santa Cruz Comedy Festival with an all star line up of the funniest woman in California with headliner, Kate Willet. Our show will be hosted by comic, Irene Tu.

Kate Willett has been featured on Comedy Central’s “This Is Not Happening,” Viceland’s “Flophouse” and is a regular opener for Margaret Cho who she’s toured with nationally and internationally.

You might have seen her on Fusion TV or heard her on the Risk! podcast with Kevin Allison. She’s was named a top “Artist to Watch in 2016” by SF Weekly, has opened for comedians like Kyle Kinane, Jen Kirkman, Anthony Jeselnik, Dana Gould, Jackie Kashian, Myq Kaplan, and Michael Che. She’s appeared in the 2015 Just for Laughs Montreal Comedy Festival, Limestone Comedy Festival, and San Francisco Sketchfest (3 years in a row). She’s a regular feature at comedy clubs all over the country and a favorite of audience members, flannel clad skateboarders, and all of her twenty-three roommates.

“Kate Willett is a woman on the rise. Willett achieves a perfect blend of smart and filthy when she takes the stage.” –SF Weekly

“With a combination of affectionate satire of the Bay Area lifestyle, unflinchingly honest but wildly absurd personal stories, and lucid feminist/queer commentary, Kate Willett has begun to emerge as one of the most unique voices in San Francisco comedy.” –Hoodline.com

“Cho also noted that she’s been at this for long enough now to have her own “daughters in comedy,” chief among them Amy Schumer. Another of her daughters, Kate Willett, opened the show with a short set. Sending up the hippy mores of San Francisco and men who watch too much porn, Willett was especially brilliant in her final bit about having a pregnancy scare at Burning Man.”–Exclaim.ca (review of Just for Laughs Comedy Festival, Montreal 2015)

“As my opener, she buried me! Fortunately we were performing in a mortuary.” — Kyle Kinane

“She’s a great actress within the joke, which is usually the left out secret ingredient in explicating dark humor…Kate Willett is beyond a doubt top-notch in comedy writing, execution and overall presentation.” — Jewish Journal of the Greater Los Angeles Area

“Taut, spry, dashing, deadpan.” –courtingcomedy.com

Natasha Muse

Natasha Muse is like the C3P0 of San Francisco comedy: a bunch of small bears once mistook her for a golden god but in reality she’s a bumbling robot (as well as a mom, a transsexual, and a firm agnostic). The SF Weekly once declared her a “Comedian to Watch” in 2014, and in 2016 they upgraded her to an “Artist to Watch.” Natasha features at the SF Punchline and Cobb’s Comedy Club, and has worked with such comedy luminaries as Maria Bamford, Roseanne Barr, Janeane Garofalo, Wyatt Cenac, and God. Natasha’s comedy is so good, it’s not even funny.

Virginia Jones

Virginia Jones started doing comedy in Portland, OR, where she was working as a bike-riding vegan cliche. She’s gone on to work in Hong Kong, LA, New York, London and Billings, Montana. She appears in Portlandia and has been in six Bridgetown comedy festivals, as well as Boston’s Women In Comedy Festival, Portland’s All Jane, and Austin’s Ladies Are Funny Fest. She was a semifinalist in the San Francisco comedy competition and just toured the SURPRISE! comedy show up the West Coast. Her monthly, GLENDALIA, was applauded in the LA weekly, she has appeared on the famous LA shows Set List, Competitive Erotic Fan Fiction, and Big Money, and her mother is proud of her. She just appeared in a Mexican beer ad she hopes her mother will never see. Her first album, Gothic American, dropped in November 2015.

“Virginia Jones’ comedy features humorously dim-witted logic, a sarcastic, self-deprecating delivery, jokes about animals and personal relationships.” –PANDORA

“To everyone who’s ever asked me to describe my comedy, I’ve settled on Nutritionally Dense.”- Virginia

“The one person on the bill that everyone always talks about is Virginia Jones.”- Dwight Slade

“Yay so good!” – Maria Bamford

Nicole Calisich

Nicole Calasich is a Bolivian-American comedian and producer. Based in San Francisco, she performs regularly at SF Punchline and Cobb’s as well as the national club circuit. Her humor is big words smartcool and her penchant for incisive audience rapport is the dumbest. She’s opened for Dan Cummins and Ali Wong, features for Iliza Shlesinger, and can be seen on ABC’s “Forever 31.” When her Twitter account isn’t being featured on Comedy Central, she produces four of the best damn shows in SF. They’re top-drawer events, sure, but mostly they’re humble offerings to the great and powerful Xenu.

Becky Lynn

The newest comedian on the show, Becky is a force of nature and a true authentic voice. She has appeared at The Punchline and as part of the headliner show at the Chico Comedy Festival.

With Host Irene Tu

Irene Tu is a stand-up comedian, writer, and actor. She was named one of the “Bay Area’s 11 Best Standup Comedians” in 2016 by the SFist and has been featured in numerous comedy festivals including SF Sketchfest, Limestone Comedy Festival, and Crom Comedy Festival. Irene hosts several popular shows in the Bay Area including "Laugh Function", "Man Haters", and "Hysteria". She is also a co-producer of The Mission Position in San Francisco. Give her a follow on Twitter: @irene_tu. irenetu.com

* Admission includes complimentary beverages. Walk-in space is subject to availability. This show sold out last year, so secure your seat today to make sure you get your funny bone tickled!

For more information on this year’s event, visit The Headquarters for all things funny in Santa Cruz: www.standupsantacruz.com.