Image via the Center for Media and Social Impact
Great American Punchline Tour graphic
“Comedy has a particular ability to lower people's guard.”
Shannon Ross of local community organizing non-profit Paradigm Shyft made that observation in regard to his involvement with the Great American Punchline Tour, a unique stand-up revue that played a handful of cities, including Milwaukee, in 2024. The Great American Punchline Tour, a documentary chronicling that tour, premieres locally with a free screening at Dwight and Dian Diercks Computational Science Hall on the Milwaukee School of Engineering campus, 6 p.m. Friday, September 26. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion led by Ross and a brief time for an audience Q&A session.
Ross’ mission is to bridge America's current sociopolitical polarization with laughter through his work the Center for Media & Socia Impact (CMSI), a “creative innovation lab and research center” focuses on social justice. “People give comedy a pass they don't give other forms of confrontation,” he said. “It's almost childlike that way: it can be brash, confrontational, inelegant, even rude in making its point, and audiences let it through where they wouldn't otherwise.
“Comedians have always been philosophers in that sense; they expose the gap between who we are, who we say we are, and who we want to be.” The funny philosophers seen in The Great American Punchline Tour (who played the same MSOE building in July 2024) are Dylan Adler, Maggie Crane, Yasmin Elhady, Negin Farsad, Cory Ryan Foster, Chris Gethardim and Ali Sultan.
Ross' involvement in bringing the Punchline tour and the motion picture to come from it came from a personal connection.
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“The connection came through a friend, Stephen Olikara, who'd heard about the tour and the film it would become,” he recalls of the 2022 Wisconsin Democratic senatorial primary candidate. “He knew they were stopping in Milwaukee and told them they should connect with me. When they did, I felt we'd be a great fit to help put the event on and it was also a great opportunity to raise some money for our youth collective, The Beginning.”
Collective Memory
CMSI's collective memory was long enough to reach out again to Ross for the Milwaukee debut of the movie. “When it came time to premiere the film,” he noted, “they came back to see if we were still interested in partnering, and we were.”
Though the Punchline bill would have been an ideal fit for one of the area's dedicated comedy clubs, and the documentary suitable for one of Milwaukee's arthouse theaters, MSOE made for a hospitable, if unorthodox location for both.
“Once the CMSI partnership came together, I reached out to Prof. Michael Carriere right away,” Ross said of the school's honors program director. “It felt like a good fit for him personally, and MSOE has always been a great partner to us as a venue.”
Meaning of Success
It's too early to gauge the success of a movie that has not yet played publicly, but Ross' criteria for the tour that preceded it goes beyond the number of seats at Dircks Hall it filled.
“For me, success has two parts: a strong turnout first, because nothing else works without people in the room,” he continued “And then, just as important, people leaving genuinely inspired to engage with those who believe differently, and maybe even seeing the film itself as a tool to do that, something they'd screen or share to help open more minds.”
As for the goal of left-leaning comedians opening hearts and minds of Republican and other right-leaning comedy lovers, Ross offered, “I couldn't say for certain whether it pulled in people outside the comedians' existing sympathetic base; my honest guess is the crowd leaned more progressive.”
But neither does he discount the value of the Punchliners' Milwaukee date and move to be screened.
“I don't think the divide in America breaks down neatly into one side 'preaching to the choir' more than the other. Both sides contribute equally to that divide so even if one political ideology was more prominent in the audience, it was still addressing people that contribute to the divide.” Having made that option, Ross even sees the potential value in a troupe of righty comics getting a lefty-dominant audience chuckling.
“That's exactly why it matters for comics of one political leaning to tour for audiences of another. Done well, it closes distance instead of widening them, because if someone can make you laugh, cognitive dissonance makes it much harder to fully disregard their humanity, or their standing as a voice worth hearing.”
The Great American Punchline Tour’s co-director/producer, Caty Borum (scheduled to be part of the Milwaukee premiere's panel discussion), she promised, "We are working on making sure the documentary has a final digital home for people to watch it, and plans are underway. Folks can follow the Center for Media & Social Impact on Instagram to stay in touch with our latest news, including announcements about this film.” As for a second round of Punchlines, she makes an understandable qualification.
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“We would love to do this, but documentaries and comedy tours require financial support, and we will have to raise the funds to make that happen in the future.”
See a trailer for The Great American Punchline Tour below:
