Doors at 6:30 p.m.; Performance at 7 p.m.; Film at 7:30 p.m. Tickets $15.
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THE EXPERIENCE

Featuring pre-show comedy from Roland Mechanik prior to the film.  

Say you saw it first! This crowd-funded feature premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, before being pulled from subsequent planned screenings due to “rights issues.” Featuring director Vera Drew as a law-breaking comedian who is grappling with her gender identity, forming a new anti-comedy troupe with a friend, and finding herself battling a fascistic caped crusader, the film unofficially parodies characters from the Batman comics. The People’s Joker features a supporting cast of comedy legends, including Scott Aukerman, Tim Heidecker, Maria Bamford, and Bob Odenkirk.

“Brutally hilarious, relentlessly inventive, and profoundly moving.” —Rolling Stone

ON SCREEN: The People’s Joker
2022. Directed by Vera Drew. Runtime: 92 minutes. Not Rated.
A law-breaking comedian who is grappling with her gender identity forms a new anti-comedy troupe with a friend and finds herself battling a fascistic caped crusader.

About the Filmmaker: Vera Drew

Emmy-nominated editor Vera Drew has lent her diverse expertise as an editor, director, and writer to numerous film and television projects over the last decade. Her background as a director and writer influence her editing style as she focuses on story structure and character development in her edits. She’s been described as “an editor that thinks like a writer,” and has expertly edited dozens of improv based comedies.

Vera honed her editing skills at Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim’s production company Abso Lutely Productions. In 2019, Vera’s talent was recognized by the Television Academy with an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Picture Editing For Variety Programming for her work editing Sacha Baron Cohen’s Showtime comedy series Who Is America? (2018). She is further known for her work on An Emmy for Megan (2018) and also helped launch the Adult Swim streaming network, Channel 5 for which she wrote and directed four comedy series: I Love David, Tim and Eric Quiz, Scum, and Our Bodies.

ON STAGE: Roland Mechanik

Roland Mechanik has been teaching improv at Kickstand for almost 5 years! Roland graduated with a theater degree from the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. He studied at the Upright Citizens Brigade in NYC before moving to Portland and joining up with Kickstand Comedy. Roland has performed at the Stumptown Improv Festival, the Vancouver Improv Festival, and every theater around Portland. In addition to improv, you can catch Roland doing stand-up and weird bits with his mannequin, Muriel. He’s proud to have been the first out trans-masc improviser in Portland (as far as he knows)!