The Bushnells 08-09 Ha! Ha! Hartford! Series Comes to a Close with a Special Uno de Mayo Night of Comedy
Celebrate Cinco de Mayo…four days early at this special Latin-themed Ha! Ha! Hartford! featuring comedians Rich Ramirez, Andres Fernandez, and Bill Santiago!
Hartford, CT – March 30, 2009 – May brings with it the final Ha! Ha! Hartford! of the 2008-2009 season and this year The Bushnell is ending the series with a special Latin-themed “Uno de Mayo” celebration! Join host, 96.5 TIC’s Damon Scott in Belding Theater on May 1, 2009 along with featured comedians Rich Ramirez, Andres Fernandez, and Bill Santiago. Ha! Ha! Hartford! is sponsored by United Technologies Corporation. Comedians have been booked with the assistance of Treehouse Comedy Productions (www.treehousecomedy.com).
Tickets for Ha! Ha! Hartford! are on sale now and can be purchased by visiting The Bushnell Box Office at 166 Capitol Avenue in Hartford or by calling (860) 987-5900. Tickets may also be purchased online at www.bushnell.org. Groups of 10 or more should call (860) 987-5959. Tickets prices are $18-$25. This show is not recommended for children under the age of 17 due to some content intended for mature audiences.
Ha! Ha! Hartford! host Damon Scott is also host of 96.5 TIC-FM’s weekday afternoon show “The Damon Scott Show with Jeannine Jersey.” He's been in broadcasting for over 18 years. Damon is a regular contributor to the Satellite Comedy Network and operates his own production company producing commercials and imagery for stations all around the country.
Rich Ramirez is a veteran of over 20 national stand-up comedy and cable TV appearances. You might also recognize him from his reoccurring roles on TV’S “Law and Order” and the soap “One Life to Live.” In terms of stand-up, Rich has performed at more than 175 colleges and opened for such recording artists as George Benson, Jon Secada, Jose Feliciano, the Temptations and The Four Tops. His comedy is effortless and smooth. His material moves from personal life experiences to an off-beat musical parody of Walt Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Rich’s comedy runs quite the gamut, highly original, clean, fun and he can sing too. Unusually, he is not only a talented stand-up but also a transplant recipient. Not funny but true…and he pokes fun at that too!
Andres Fernandez brings a fresh brand of humor that is universal in its appeal. Andres breaks down barriers of what an audience expects from a Latino comedian. While charming the audience with his story telling ability, which is an amusing cross between hilarity and reality, Andres always keeps the flow of laughs hard and steady. A native New Yorker, Andres says that his comedy routines mainly draw on experiences in his own family, cultural differences among people and conflicts between genders and generations. He started his illustrious comedy career at Connecticut’s original fulltime comedy showcase, the Treehouse Comedy Club in Westport.
Andres said "My mom is Dominican born and raised in New York. But my dad is really the 'ethnic' one. So a lot of my humor has to do with my take on my father and the way he was... which was not like all the other dads in the neighborhood. I mean he trimmed the hedges with a machete!"
Fluent in Spanish, Andres has performed as a member of the Copa Comedy Troupe at the Copacabana, a sketch player in "El Barrio" at Caroline's, and is a legit stage actor with the Puerto Rican Repertory Theater. Andres has several television appearances to his credit, including NBC's “Friday Night,” Showtime's “Latino Laugh Festival,” Comedy Central's “Stand Up Stand Up,” a starring role in the Paramount/UPN pilot "American Family" and feature roles in soap operas on ABC, CBS and NBC including “Guiding Light,” “Another World,” and “All My Children.”
Bill Santiago is the first born of at least four children. He became a standup after narrowly escaping a career in journalism, facing the fact that as a comedian he was funny, but as a reporter he was a joke. It’s been said he was born to Puerto Rican immigrants, which is technically untrue, as Puerto Ricans are US citizens. Although, he’s got an uncle who was once deported to the Bronx.
With the premiere of his first television special, “Comedy Central Presents: Bill Santiago,” he won over fans nationwide with his dead-on observations about Spanglish – “Twice the vocabulary and half the grammar!” and his beloved catchphrase “¡Porque Because!” Which led to his hilarious new book, PARDON MY SPANGLISH ¡Porque Because!, a full-immersion comedic excursion into Latino USA, via the unofficial, all-American language: Spanglish. It's the only humor book about Spanglish ever written entirely in Spanglish.
On television, in addition to his “Comedy Central Presents” special, Bill has also appeared “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” Comedy Central’s “Premium Blend,” “Que Locos,” “American Latino,” and “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.” Last year, he hosted the Latin Grammy Person of the Year Award ceremony, honoring Juan Luis Guerra (the tallest Dominican he’s ever met), at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas.
Formerly an awarding-winning journalist (despite his worst efforts), he contributed regularly to newspapers including the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Boston Globe and Philadelphia Inquirer. While living in Puerto Rico, he worked as a staff writer for the San Juan Star. He was also a humor columnist for Mother Jones magazine online. When not on stage, he enjoys curling up with a good book or a well-read, Spanglish-speaking woman. He lives in New York City.
About The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts
The Bushnell is Connecticut’s premier performing arts center, hosting more than 350 events yearly, including major Broadway tours, symphony orchestras, family presentations, local arts and community events. The Bushnell is home to two theaters- the historic 2,800-seat Mortensen Hall, and the 907-seat Belding Theater, a state-of-the-art performance hall that opened in 2001. The Bushnell’s nationally-recognized arts-in-education program, PARTNERS® (Partners in Arts and Education Revitalizing Schools), now in its 16th year, is a cross-community educational effort serving 15 schools in 6 districts, serving approximately 3,400 Pre-K-12 students. The Bushnell opened in January 1930 and is a non-profit organization. For more information, call The Bushnell at (860) 987-6000, The Bushnell Box Office at (860) 987-5900 or visit our website at www.bushnell.org.
# # #
With support from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism.