A Tremendous Salamat (Thank you)

The Poverty Sucks comedy fundraiser took place Wednesday last week, and it was killer! A brilliant rendition of a Beauty and the Beast song (Hillary-style), why we love and don't love orphans, acceptance of incontinence, an explanation of how Tiger Woods is really Filipino, Arty Knickerbocker's greatest hits, and a rogue Andy Warhol painting were some of the Poverty-defeating highlights of the evening. And audience members were victorious with the raffle-- the odds were excellent!

And with combined audience generosity and private donations associated with the event, we were able to raise $1,180 total! That's 50,920 Philippine pesos for the Special Fund for Madapdap, according to yesterday's exchange rate!

A special thanks to all of the awesome performers and audience members, and much gratitude to all of the wonderful folks who donated from afar via PayPal or personal check. If you still want to contribute, it's never too late-- click on the ChipIn or scroll down for a mailing address!

Maraming salamat!

Oh and also!

It's not noted on our ChipIn, but thanks to the publicity surrounding this event, we've already raised $350 in private mailed donations for the Madapdap kids! Ever-closer to reaching our goal of $1000 in donations! Thanks everyone!

T-Minus TODAY!

Here it is, folks! Poverty may suck every day, but today is the day to catch POVERTY SUCKS, our awesome beyond awesome comedy fundraiser. There will be raucously funny mayhem, courtesy of Gabe Pacheco, 27 Kidneys, Reuben Williams, Kevin Nadal, Impending Moustache and T.R.U.C.K.S. There will be some sick jams, courtesy of DJ Vettie Vette. There will be cheap drinks, courtesy of the amazingly generous folks at the Horse Trade, who've also donated the space. There will be righteous raffle prizes given out by funnywoman Sheela Shrinivas that you will not want to miss (did we mention that iPod Touch? that $200 portrait sitting session? those gift certificates to Macy's and Community Bookstore? yeah yo!). And there will be some massive poverty suckage, reduced through your help.

POVERTY SUCKS will take place tonight, June 11th, at 7pm at the Under St. Marks Theater. Join us!

Again, all the money from POVERTY SUCKS will benefit Tagalog On Site's Madapdap clinic, which provides social services, medical assistance, advocacy and leadership training and educational opportunities to Filipinos affected by toxic waste dumping and the aftermath of Mount Pinatubo's eruption. For more info, check out the clinic's site at http://www.kamayatpuso.org.

I hope to see you all at POVERTY SUCKS tonight, but if for some reason you can't come--you live overseas, your thesis is due, or (gasp) you're allergic to comedy, for example--please consider donating directly to the clinic. You can find a link to donate via PayPal at http://povertysucks.blogspot.com.

If you don't do PayPal-- you and PayPal had a falling out, went on an awkward first date, vote for different parties, etc, you can send a check (made out to Tagalog On Site) to:

Laurel Fantauzzo, AHMM
11th Fl.
475 Park Avenue South
New York, NY 10016

Questions? Comments? Think you'd be interested in helping with other POVERTY SUCKS events? Please get in touch with me, the producer, Laurel Fantauzzo, at laurel dot af at gmail dot com.

Mabuhay at Salamat!

another small press note

Big ups to Time Out NY for listing us!

Click here to read it!

small press note

Thanks to Filipinas Magazine for including Poverty Sucks in its community listings!

See it here.