BIOGRAPHIES
ALEX BARNETT
Alex Barnett was born in Brooklyn and was quickly deported to Long Island where he was raised by his parents in an overprotective shell. After peaking academically in high school, Alex meandered through an Ivy League college, law school and a legal career only to realize that his true gift was in making fun of the law, as well as his own neuroses, his raging hypochondria, his height (or lack thereof), and his relationship issues — particularly his difficulties with compromise and the challenges he and his wife face as an interracial couple and parents of a biracial baby.
Alex has performed at clubs, colleges and venues throughout the country including: Bananas Comedy Club; Broadway Comedy Club; The Brokerage Comedy Club; Catch A Rising Star; Dangerfield’s; Gotham Comedy Club; Governor’s Comedy Club; Laughing Skull Lounge; McGuire’s Comedy Club; New York Comedy Club; Stand Up New York Comedy Club; Joker’s Wild; Harvard University (Sanders Theatre); Penn State
University (Harrisburg Campus); and Seattle’s Comedy Underground. He has been featured in CNN.com, The Wall Street Journal and on NYC-TV. In April 2011, he won the 12th Annual Laugh-Off sponsored by Gilda’s Club (Northern NJ), and in 2010, he placed 2d in Philadelphia’s Emerging Comics Contest held at Philly’s Laff House. And,
In addition to his stand-up performances, Alex is a writer. He writes a monthly column about career transition for Lawyerist.com, and he chronicled his own transition from law to comedy in a series of regularly-occurring columns in The New York Daily News “Money” section. He also writes a monthly humor column for the online webzine, The Coil Review (www.thecoilreview.com). His comedic short story “Lola’s Christmas Gift” was published in the 2008 issue of the literary journal, The Westchester Review.
In his off hours, Alex can be found in coffee bars throughout New York City looking sad that his doctor made him give up coffee or, at home, driving his wife insane with his myriad control issues and his determination to sleep on the diagonal.
J-L CAUVIN
In February 2003, halfway through his second year at Georgetown University Law Center, J-L Cauvin went to a bar near his apartment and watched an amateur showcase of comedians. J-L began inquiring how he could get some stage time and after following some leads he began performing at open mics at the end of that academic year. Quickly developing a knack for it, J-L was named Washington D.C.’s funniest college student, despite not really being a college student, in March 2004 at a sold out show at the D.C. Improv.
After moving back to his native New York upon graduation from GULC in May 2004, J-L continued to work harder and harder as a comic, all while working as an Assistant District Attorney during the day in the Bronx and later as a litigator at Blank Rome LLP. He has received multiple invitations to the Boston Comedy Festival, traveled the country as a feature act and was featured on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and NESN’s Comedy All Stars. His act is as diverse as his Haitian and Irish family and touches upon topics ranging from current events to relationship troubles to several dead-on impressions, including Barack Obama.
J-L’s has released two CDs, 2006’s Racial Chameleon and 2008’s Diamond Maker, and is recording his third in the Fall of 2011. He has also been featured in the book The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Jokes.
GREG COLLETT
Greg Collett has been a lawyer, a banker, and he’s worked in politics. Now he does stand-up comedy because he wants to work in just one profession that people don’t hate.
Before doing stand-up, Greg had a fancy career. He worked as a lawyer for the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the white-shoe law firm Sidley Austin (where both Michele and Barack Obama used to work!), and the big German bank Deutsche Bank. As a banker, Greg rose to be Chief Operating Officer of one of Deutsche Bank’s businesses, and he had the good fortune to ring the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange. Now he angles for five minutes of stage time at open mics in the East Village. He’s as surprised about this turn of events as you are.
Greg has been quoted in the New York Times, the London Evening Standard, and Businessweek.
SEBASTIAN EVANS
This biography agreement (this “Bio”) is made on the date it is read hereof between Sebastian Evans (“Sebastian”) and the Reader.
WHEREAS, the Reader wishes to know something about Sebastian, and Sebastian wishes to provide such information;
WHEREAS, Sebastian emigrated to the golden shores of the US at age six to fulfill the American Dream (“Dream”); admittedly given his age, the decision was made by his parents;
WHEREAS, this was a legal move carried out with full knowledge and approval of the US Department of Immigration and Naturalization (the “Legal Move” or “Has Papers” as applicable);
WHEREAS, his outsider status was forged in childhood as the 1) only immigrant and 2) only non-practicing Jew at an grade school Orthodox Yeshiva (“Comedic Foundation”). Hard to explain how much you love bacon to strict rule-following Jews. Classmates had no mode of understanding his question of what is their favorite Saturday morning cartoon (such TV watching a, “Sacred Rule Violation 2(a)(ix) Leviticus”). He liked the Smurfs (“Not Jews”). They knew he was going to hell (“Outcast Status”). Questioning the little hats and the strings sticking out the pants made for a lonely lunch experience. Fortunately, shame and humiliation tortures a soul enough to produce a comedian.
WHEREAS, A comedian feeds on psychic pain which is best implemented by repeating horrific childhood experiences (“Self-Loathing Act”)
1) LAW DEGREE. Sebastian physically if not emotionally survived and eventually completed his law degree; remarkably enough that degree was from Yeshiva University (Self Loathing Act, as set forth above).
2) DREAM MANIFESTATION. Armed with said law degree, Sebastian set out fulfilling the Dream, the form of which was to work as a foreign exchange derivatives attorney. The Dream all boys dream.
3) SHARING OF JOY (“Indescribably Huge Irony”). Sebastian now shares his experience of derivative legal practice joy on stage as a stand-up comedian.
4) RELATABLE. Sebastian brings a comedic voice to the soul crushing monotony of arguing about which party pays what indemnity when (“Daily Act, God Help Me”).
He makes Larry David seem well adjusted. He is in a word hilarious, in two: hilariously hilarious.
Agreed and accepted as of the date hereof, SE – Reader
KEVIN ISRAEL
At the age of six, Kevin recalls sitting on the couch watching Bill Cosby perform on the variety show, Saturday Night Gold. That night, Mr. Cosby was preparing for his upcoming special “Bill Cosby: Himself.” Young Kevin sat, transfixed, as he watched a genius turn common story telling into a work of art. He knew then, that this would be his future. For many years he delighted his family during dinnertime with jokes he had memorized from a library of joke books. His mother often called him ‘the walking joke machine.’
In college he would fall asleep to a litany of comedians on the newly created channel, Comedy Central. He once even dumped a girl because she tired of watching stand up comedy. “It’s me or the funny men.” It wasn’t even a competition. His fraternity convinced him to perform stand-up during a Greek talent show. From his first moment on stage, he was hooked.
Shortly after graduating from college, Kevin began performing at amateur shows and open-mic nights. Over the years he has created an act that is both unique, and telling of his own story. He combines the humor garnered from years of family dinners with his own observational
experiences and insights on family and relationships.
After attending law school and working as a lawyer, Kevin decided that his realization all those years ago while watching Bill Cosby still held true – his future was in making people laugh.
Kevin has since performed at clubs and venues throughout the north east. He has brought his own style of comedy to private and corporate events as well as colleges and fundraisers. He can also be heard on XM Radio’s ‘Rascals Comedy Hour’.
MATT RITTER
Matt Ritter recently traded big law for the big stage. He graduated of the University Pennsylvania Law School and worked as a corporate lawyer at both Kirkland and Ellis and Mayer Brown before leaving the law to pursue comedy. His standup has been featured on “Man Up Standup” on the Maverick channel, and he has been a guest commentator on CBS News, Fox News “On the Record”, MTV.com, ComedyTime TV, and Askmen.com. He performs regularly at the Hollywood Improv, the Comedy Store, Gotham Comedy club as well as at colleges, corporate events, casinos, military shows and Jewish organizations across the country. He recently starred in a national Sears commercial and is starring in a new webseries about the law called “The Bottom Rung.” His viral video “Goldfellas” was featured on Comedy.com, Dealbreaker, Fierce Finance, the Wallstreet Journal online and WPIX News. He is a frequent guest on the “Man Panel” of the pop culture site, Crushable.com. Matt’s first comedy music video “I’m the Kinda Guy” was featured on Comedy.com. He is also a writer for various publications, including Readers Digest, Bitter Lawyer (an insightful and engaging entertainment site for lawyers) and the Lawyerist (an advice column about being a lawyer/comedian), as well as one of the members of the Gotham Jokewriters staff.
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