Artist Information Biography Founded by Dave Reinitz in 2006. The Anti War Comedy Tour consists of a group of comedians who are dedicating their craft to help end the war. These comedians truly believe that the Microphone is more powerful than the Cruise Missile. The show features 4-7 comedians, performing Stand-up comedy, Improv and a reading of the News similar in style to “The Daily Show.” The Mission and goals of the group are stated clearly at the opening of every show. At the end of the show all audience members are asked to sign a petition called the People's Peace Treaty. BIOS DAVE REINITZ Some say that the Anti-War Comedy Tour is destined to preach to the choir. I say hallelujah. One day I was walking on the beach in Santa Monica, I came upon the Arlington West Memorial. It is a display of crosses spread across the beach memorializing the fallen soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. I was overwhelmed with emotion. When I pulled myself together I spent some time with the Veterans for Peace who worked so diligently every Sunday creating the display, hard working dedicated people, I reflected on how emotionally draining and difficult it must be to recreate a cemetery every Sunday morning, a cemetery that grows each and every week. We turned our second show into a fundraiser for this great organization. The success of the event could never be measured by the dollars raised, instead I measure it by the fact that these hard working activists were appreciated and celebrated and made to feel like the heroes they are. The fact that some of the audience members became volunteers and that we were able to point some press coverage toward their work was just icing on the cake. Dave Reinitz comes from a politically aware family. His Father was a history professor and his mother is a nationally known Muralist, who was one of the original Freedom Riders. Dave knew we were in trouble when G.W. Bush was appointed President based on the principle of “don’t count the votes.” His comedy first took a more radical bend after September 11th. That morning his mother was on her way to a meeting at #7 world trade center. It was the longest day of his life until he heard from her late that evening. Dave’s long standing mentor and friend is Jon Randolph Floyd who is the bomber pilot interviewed in the ground breaking 1973 documentary “Hearts and Minds”. In 2005 Dave was a passenger on Jet Blue Flight 292, which had faulty landing gear and was forced to make an emergency landing. The jet was in the air flying around for 3 hours, and was a media sensation. During those long 3 hours, Dave began wondering if he would live or die, then he made an emotional connection to the war in Iraq and what is must be like for the soldiers in a war zone who must struggle with that feeling all the time. It was after that experience that he created the Anti-War Comedy Tour. A way for him and others to stand up for peace through laughter, “You cant hate when your laughing” . JIMMY DORE Jimmy Dore was born into a Catholic family of twelve in a very blue-collar neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. Tagged a rebel for occasionally reading a book and thinking for himself, Jimmy quickly turned to comedy to ease the pain of the beatings. In 1995, Jimmy moved to Los Angeles to get on television and it actually worked. He has appeared on every major network multiple times. The high point of Jimmy's stand-up career came last September when he taped his own 1/2 hour Comedy Special for Comedy Central which began airing in 2004. Jimmy played the hilarious neighbor on AMC’s Movies at My House, and was invited to perform at the 2003 HBO US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen Colorado. The Hollywood reporter said jimmy was among the five comics at the festival that generated the most "buzz". (Whatever the fuck that means.) Jimmy also is a writer/performer for the critically acclaimed, Off Broadway hit, The Marijuana-logues which is currently running at the Actor's Playhouse in New York. It was a role Jimmy first played at the Melbourne Comedy festival in April of 2003. He first appeared on Comedy Central’s Make Me Laugh, fulfilling a life long dream of turning an art form into a cheesy, basic-cable game show. Unfortunately it went well and he was booked to do four more, an experience that Jimmy warmly refers to as “embarrassing” and "tough to watch." Then, in 1997, he was invited to Montreal Canada to perform at the Just For Laughs international comedy festival. He caught the eye of NBC talent scouts and producers (okay, it was only one guy, but he was impressed enough for three) and was given a spot on NBC’s Friday Night! He quickly became a show favorite (true) and was signed to make five return appearances. From there Jimmy has gone on to make multiple stand-out appearances on The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn (that’s on CBS motherfuckers), and two winning performances on NBC’s Late Friday. (Winning performance, how do you like that adjective?) Then Jimmy flew to New York and donned a suit to appear on Comedy Centrals Premium Blend. He’s done a bunch of other stuff that you can see on his resume', including hosting Pilot's for Comedy Central and AMC. But Jimmy says all the hard work was worth it if for nothing else to see his mother's face the first time she ever came to see him perform. It was at the MGM in Las Vegas, and Jimmy had just stepped off stage when his mother whispered in his ear, “Well I’ll say one thing, I sure am hungry”. Damn right she was. Damn right. I am doing this tour because it is a tragedy that anyone else has to lose a life or get disfigured because of the idiocy of our horrible and incompetent commander and chief and all of those chicken hawks around him. Dissent is good, maybe if we weren't so afraid after 911 we would have had more dissent and this horrible war would never have happened. WILL DURST As the sacred cows routinely paint targets on their foreheads practically begging for someone to puncture their pomposity, America cries out for a man with the aim, strength, and style to hit them where it hurts the funniest. Will Durst is that man. Sweeping both sides of the aisle with a quiver full of arrows dipped in common sense, Durst transcends party ties, having performed at events honoring former Presidents Bill Clinton and George HW Bush as well as acclaimed appearances at both a Mayors Convention and Governors Conference. Outraged and outrageous, Durst is as current as today’s headlines, as accurate as a sniper, and universally acknowledged by even his peers as the nation’s foremost political comic. A Midwestern baby boomer with a mediainduced identity crisis, Durst, according to the New York Times is “quite possibly the best political satirist working in the country today.” This equal opportunity offender is exceptionally adept at swatting both partisan political piñatas upside their heads. Although a prolific writer, he professes little need for material, having it regularly delivered at 7:00 a.m. every morning in the five papers he reads daily. Busier than a blind squirrel neck deep in an almond sorting warehouse, Durst is a regular commentator for audible.com, Air America, CNN and NPR, writes a nationally syndicated op- ed column, daily website jokes—yet still finds time to perform hundredss of comedy shows every year—at clubs, corporate events, theaters and benefits…not to mention the occasional acting and voice-over role. Reigning as C-SPAN’s favorite comic (8 appearances,) Durst is a 5-time Emmy nominee and recipient of 7 consecutive nominations for the American Comedy Awards Stand Up of the Year. He is the first comic invited to perform at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and the first American to be nominated for the prestigious Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for the show “Myth America.”He has racked up more than 400 television appearances in 14 different countries while slinging jokes around the globe in his one man crusade to make people laugh out loud on purpose against their will. Hobbies include the never-ending quest for the perfect cheeseburger while his heroes remain the same as when he was twelve—Thomas Jefferson and Bugs Bunny. Will Durst’s performances are made possible by the First Amendment. LAMONT FERGUSON - with the News If you were to ask audiences and industry executives to describe Lamont Ferguson’s comedy, they all echo similar words: Original, engaging, clever, intelligent and funny.  No, make that very, very funny. Lamont Ferguson has been making people laugh ever since he learned to speak.  Some urban folklore even has it that he was a funny fetus.  Whatever the case, he has emerged as one of the best stand-ups to ever take the stage. After watching Lamont perform, one can’t help but see the influences of such great comedians as Bill Cosby, Mort Sahl and Richard Pryor.  From family to relationships to social commentary, Lamont’s material is universal and always uniquely his own humorous point of view. His professionalism has made him a highly requested guest on radio talk shows and television shows across the country. When it comes to seeing a hilarious performer go see Lamont Ferguson. BARBARA HOLLIDAY- Manager/Producer Barbara is a highly respected 20 year veteran of the comedy business. She starred as a host of the highly-rated television program, Fox Kids Club, where she also honed her writing and producing skills. Barbara later worked for Warner Bros Television, and performed as a Stand Up herself before creating H2F Comedy Productions, Inc. (H2F), a Los Angeles Based Management and Development company. H2F Manages the Anti War Comedy Tour because maybe, just maybe the nonsense of this war can finally be communicated to the masses through laughter and if that’s what it takes-Let’s do it! H2F also produces successful live comedy events at The Comedy Store in Hollywood and The Ice House in Pasadena, as well as at colleges and theatres around the country. Featured Comics DARRYL LENNOX I'm on this on this tour because, though I know we as a country has a karmic debt we owe to the Vietnam vets, we cannot allow politics to create wars and loss of lives. My Father fought in Vietnam and he has said repeatedly that the treatment he recieved from Americans when he came home was worse than any of the Jim Crow Southern hatred he experienced. That says a great deal about yesterday and today. To have an anti war sentment is too often viewed as anti military. It is not and I am very clear about that in my show. I would be honored to participate on this tour. I'm Darryl Lenox. DYLAN BRODY Mr. Brody has two published novels for the young adult market with a third on the way.  He won the 2005 Stanley Drama Award for Playwriting.He has appeared in stand-up comedy venues across the country and has been seen on A&E’s Comedy on the Road and FOX TV’s Comedy Express.  He was one of the founding members of Los Angeles’ Late Edition, a live all-political comedy show that earned him acclaim as L.A. Weekly’s Comedy Pick-of-the-week for six consecutive weeks.  He is a regular at the Original IMPROVisation in Los Angeles. George Carlin once called to tell him he was very funny.  Steve Allen once gave him a watch.  He can break a stack of ten bricks with his right hand and will demonstrate if you show the slightest interest. COMEDY JESUS -TROY CONRAD This is important to me for many reasons. I have a cousin in Iraq, who is on his second redeployment, and may soon have his third. I have met so many people who are now awakened to what a massive mistake this war is. Awakened people know it's OK to dissent, and people hear the message better when the dissent is entertaining. That's why I do this. I was a fundamentalist when I was younger. I went to church school. In the documentary I'm making of my travels around the globe as Jesus, I ask people what would happen if Jesus really, suddenly did come back. The answers I got were most frequently the following: Jesus would be very angry at the people who used his name and did evil. Jesus would be against the war, and would be silenced or killed by the Bush Administration. Jesus would not know Bush. Jesus would declare the world a mess. My drive for peace in this conflict stems from my calling to make dissent funny, expose liars, and enlighten the world. That's what this tour is about. JIM RUEL My family is very involved with social justice and quite often war brings along with it a whole host of social injustices. My father recently went down to protest the School of the Americas, now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. My sister is an advocate/volunteer for the homeless, many of whom are veterans. I attended Marquette University High School in Milwaukee which is a Jesuit institution. The Jesuits have a strong tradition of social justice. While I was the there the first Persian Gulf War was just starting and several of the faculty and priests spoke passionately against the war. At the same time several Jesuit priests were murdered in Guatemala by right wing death squads for standing up for the rights of everyday people, most of whom were Native Maya.  Being Native American is hard blindly follow the United States when it engages in military action when I know that the wars that the United States fought against the tribes of North America were simply acts of aggression in order to take land and resources.  Although the label wasn't used at the time, we were the terrorists of the day. At the same time, Native Americans join up to serve in the military more than any other group (percentage wise), including many of my relatives. I do not like to see their service being used when it need not be. I have no first hand look at how the war is going on in Iraq, but it was certainly possible to see how the federal government mishandled (and continues to mishandle) the Katrina Hurricane disaster and connect that incompetence to the difficulties that we see now in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our president has portrayed himself as a cowboy, saying "Bring 'em on!" and "Let's smoke 'em out!" Well as a Native American, I can't say I like the cowboy motif. ERIN ASHBY In the last few years I've seen friends lose cousins and brothers. I remember people in high school who joined up after graduation and I wonder what's become of them. I've heard boys in bars talking about enlisting because the army will pay off their student loans and it makes me cry. I'm performing in the tour because I believe in the power of satire to agitate, to provoke and to provide a catharsis. I can protest and sign petitions and thankfully I can also tell jokes. I don't have a lot of money or power but I figure if I can make people laugh in a dark time then maybe I've made a small contribution. DAVID SCHENDLINGER I guess I've had serious misgivings about war at least since my cousin was wounded in Vietnam, and then a couple of my high school classmates were killed there. I myself might have served in Nam, except that I was considered physically unfit and then moved to Canada, just in case the army drastically lowered its standards. I must say that it disturbs me that leaders such as Bush and Cheney, who were at least as energetic as I in side-stepping active military service, are now so gung-ho about sending other people's children into harm's way. Not that I'm against all war. I believe World War II needed to be fought, and I thank my father and uncles and all their comrades who bravely served. I also supported the War on Poverty, which I think could have been won if only we had been able to capture more poor people. No comment on the War on Drugs, except to say that I joined with the rest of my generation in striving to eliminate as much of the enemy as possible. Since becoming a father and grandfather, I would like to do everything possible to prevent young people from having to kill or be killed in order to prove the masculinity of old men. Instrumentation (THE SHOW USUALLY CONSISTS OF 3-4 OF THE FOLLOWING COMEDIANS- BASED ON AVAILABILITY) Hosted by Troy Conrad (Comedy Jesus -Improv) Dave Reinitz (Stand Up) Jimmy Dore (Stand Up) Will Durst (Stand Up) Lamont Ferguson (The News Segment) Marc Maron (Stand Up) Featured Comics Jim Ruel  (Stand Up) Darryl Lennox (Stand Up) Dylan Brody (Storytelling) SHORT FILM FEATURED PERFORMERS David Schendlinger (Stand Up) Erin Ashby (Stand Up) Michael Rayner (Stand Up) Discography Anti War Comedy Tour DVD 2007 Links http://www.MakeLaughNotWar.net Anti War Comedy Tour/MYSPACE Will Durst Dave Reinitz Website Jimmy Dore Comedy Jesus