(Photo from Lee Cohen’s Facebook)
UPDATE: The story has been updated to include the showtime and event flyer.
DeLand, Fla. | Comedian Lee Cohen is back with their second installment of “Comedy Qxeens,” an LGBTQ-focused comedy show, this time at The Abbey Bar in DeLand, Florida Jan. 21 at 9 p.m.
Cohen’s first “Comedy Qxeens” show was something they started on a whim in January 2022 to create more visibility for Central Florida’s queer comedy community.
“The people in our queer comedy community are amazingly talented,” Cohen says, “and the world of comedy is still overwhelmingly straight so queer comedians don’t get recognized as much unless it’s in June.”
After approaching a few local venues, Cohen was given their shot to put the show together by community leader Blue Star, while she was still at HAOS on Church.
“She was very generous and kind and is so supportive of queer comedy,” Cohen says. “You hear about the drag shows and the burlesque shows, music festivals, but you don’t hear a lot about queer comedy shows, at least not as often, so it was amazing how supportive she was.”
The show was a huge hit leading Cohen, who started doing stand-up comedy nearly four years ago in their last year at the University of Central Florida, to start putting together a second and planning a third “Comedy Qxeens” event.
The upcoming event will be hosted by Lesley Jo with Cohen being joined at the event by comedians Jess Cearley, Alina Siddiqui, Kevin Deane and Mario Bruno. The show will also feature performances from TomBoii Burlesque.
“TomBoii is a masc lesbian burlesque group that will be doing a “Magic Mike”-style show in between comedy sets.
The event is free to attend and will also be a partnership with DeLand Pride to hold a clothing drive.
“This show is happening as a lead up to DeLand Pride’s event, so I wanted to give something back to them with this event,” Cohen says. “Speaking with Heather at DeLand Pride, we came up with what Heather calls ‘feets and seats.’”
Feets and seats is a clothing drive to collect things that you don’t typically get at a clothing drive — underwear, Under Armor, binders, bras; undergarments that are newly purchased and unused.
“This is going to be a great event so I want people in the community to come out to support a show that is all about them,” Cohen says.
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