BMCC Tribeca Presents Black Women in Comedy Showcase

The BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center will host an evening of laughter on Friday, February 6 with acclaimed headline local comedian Calise Hawkins and additional NYC female comedians Pat Brown, Leighann Lord, and Nicky Sunshine.

Calise Hawkins has done stand up comedy on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" on NBC, "Russell Simmons Presents Stand Up" at the El Rey on Comedy Central, "Stand Up In Stilettos" on TV Guide Channel, "Gotham Live" on AXS TV, two episodes of "Nick Mom Night Out" on Nick Jr, and two seasons of "Last Comic Standing" on NBC. In addition, she co-wrote MTV's "Totally Clueless," writes for MTV's "Girl Code," and is a contributing writer for NickMom.com

Hawkins first gained exposure as a featured guest on Lewis Black's "Root of All Evil" on Comedy Central. NBC then named her a finalist in their annual Stand Up for Diversity competition. A festival favorite, she was named a semifinalist in the New York Comedy Festival's Funniest Comic in New York competition. In 2012, she was named on the New Faces Showcase on Montreal's prestigious Just For Laughs Comedy Festival. She can be seen nightly at the city's top comedy clubs, including Stand Up NY and Caroline's on Broadway.

Leighann Lord has performed around the world, including London and in the Netherlands. Lord's stand-up is frequently heard on XM-Sirius Satellite Radio and she has appeared on many stand-up comedy shows including "Girls Night Out" (Lifetime), The "Original Def Comedy All Star Jam" (HBO), "Premium Blend" (Comedy Central), "The World Stands Up" (Comedy Central), "Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen," VH1's "40 Most Shocking Celebrity Hair Moments," "The View" (ABC), "Comic Quickies" (SiTV), "HA! Comedy" (Gospel Music Channel) and "We Got Next!" (ASPIRE TV).

Named one of New York's 10 Hot Comics by Improper Magazine. As a comedic commentator Lord has pulled pundit duty on VH1, Fox News, and MSNBC. Her popular weekly humor blog, The Urban Erma, is the longest running featured column on StageTimeMag.com and is available as a free podcast on iTunes.

She has also contributed various blogs on online magazines including This Week in Blackness, The Woodhull Institute, The Three Tomatoes, FoxNew.com's Team Washington, The Huffington Post, and she wrote for the pilot of "The Chris Rock Show." And for two consecutive years, Leighann was Harlem Week's official comedian. (The only other comedian in Harlem Week's history to earn that distinction was Richard Pryor.)

Nicky Sunshine has starred in and produced several comedy shows in major NYC venues such as the Times Square Arts Center, Broadway Comedy Club, Stand-Up NY & New York Comedy Club. She has also performed in numerous Off-Broadway productions including the acclaimed play by Linda Nieves Powell, "Yo Soy Latina." She originated the role of Samana in the hit play "Platanos and Collard Greens" and most recently she starred in "The Vagina Monologues" at New World Stages.

Pat Brown has written for Black Entertainment Television, Comedian Rickey Smiley, Sommore, one of the Queens of Comedy, and countless others. She's just finished her first feature role in the independent film "Somebodies." Some of Brown's more recent accomplishments include being a finalist in the 2004 Las Vegas Comedy Festival, as well as the Girls Behaving Badly Comedy search.

She's also worked with a diverse mix of the cr�me de la cr�me of comedians including Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer, Ron White and Jeff Dunham. Brown is also a veteran improvisational actor with Laughing Matters Improv Troupe, as well as the Blacktop Circus, one of only two African-American improv troupes in America.

BMCC Tribeca PAC is located on the Borough of Manhattan Community College campus, 199 Chambers Street (between Greenwich Avenue & West Street). Tickets are $10-15 and can be purchased by calling 212-220-1460 or visit www.tribecapac.org